Runescape: New Gielinor
by Oryxace
Summary: In an age without Gods, two clans vie for dominance in Gielinor, the traditional Valhallius, and the destructive King's Death. Seeking the help of the mystical Saviour to achieve victory, they come to his descendant, Suiro, who wishes nothing more than to be left alone, and in peace...
1. Chapter 1, Suiro the blacksmith

The sound of a hammer hitting a hot piece of metal, it was music to my ears, before I associated it with another event. My name is Suiro, my family runs a smithy in Burthorpe, we handle everything, repairing, producing, modifying. We were also a neutral shop, which meant we got a lot of threats from people who thought we should pick a side in the clan wars.

Maybe I should start again, it's the year 1206 PC the gods were banished from our world, after a decade of bloody war, generations ago. The person who banished them also made it so they could never return, people call him the 'Saviour'. They say he fought all the gods at once, and still had enough power to completely sever the connection between the mortal and immortal realms. He vanished shortly after however, never to be seen again, eventually people started trying to take over what was left of Gielinor. Clans were formed for this purpose, once they had been in service of the lands, now they fought to control the lands, people started calling it the 'clan wars'.

As I said, my family was neutral, emphasis on the WAS, sigh, maybe I should start from the beginning of it all, the day I was thrown into the world by The King's Death.

I struck the hot piece of metal, it was to be a sword, it rang out rhythmically, I knew it was going to be a good one. The day was cold, but the forge made the inside of the smithy warm, I plunged the metal into a nearby bucket of water, steam rose. Life was as peaceful as you could get in these times, Burthorpe was far away from the front lines of the clan wars.

"The sound of a hammer hitting an anvil, oh that takes me back." Says a stranger as he enters the smithy.

"Can I help you?" I ask him, looking up from my work.

"My sword needs repairing, peasant." He replies, unsheathing his sword and throwing it down on my work bench.

"Perhaps if you treated it with more respect, it might not need to be repaired as often." I reply, putting down the sword I had been working on, and inspecting the one he had rudely placed on my workbench.

"It's a sword, it doesn't need respect, what it needs is a good smith, and the one who was travelling with me was killed outside your fair town this morning, a bloody waste of 300 gold coins." He replies, inspecting his nails.

"It'll take about that much for me to even think about repairing your sword." I respond.

"Bah, surely you must jest!" he says, looking surprised at my statement.

"I need to make a living, and times are harder here than they may have been in Misthalin, and I will charge you what I feel the job is worth, and here it will take a fair amount of work, increasing the price, you're better off buying a new sword." I answer, handing him the sword.

"Fine, I will take your best sword, at half price of course." He says throwing his old sword to the ground.

"You'll pay full price, or you won't get it at all!" I say, getting annoyed with the man.

"Watch your tongue peasant, do you know who I am?" He says, reaching for the side of his cape.

"Frankly, I don't care, but if you're not paying, then get out of my smithy!" I yell at him, pointing to the door.

"I am an officer of The King's Death, you'd be good to respect me we took control of this area last evening!"

"I don't give a damn! Unless you willing to pay full price, then you can hit the road!" I yell, picking up the sword I had been working on.

"You'll regret this." He says as he walks out.

I hated people with a sense of entitlement like him, they lowered the world's IQ, I started heating up the sword in the forge it would at least another 48 hours of work before it would be ready for use. I started hitting the sword with my hammer, I'd been doing this my whole life, I knew nothing else, this was my life. I worked on the sword until I became hungry, at which point I went into town to get something to eat, as I left the smithy, I noticed that the town was different, green and black banners now flew from poles, that had obviously just been set up. I walked into town, the day was cold, but my cloak was warm, I picked up some bread and cheese, then began making my way back toward my smithy. As I was walking out of the town square I was stopped by several men with the colours of the banner on their capes, they were dressed in simple bronze armour.

"I heard you refused to give proper service to a member of the clan." The biggest one says, resting his hand on his sword.

"I have the right to refuse service to people I don't like."

"Not officers from The King's Death, we saved your little town here, so we get certain benefits." He replies.

"Do I look like I care?" I ask them, annoyed.

"Maybe we should teach you a lesson." One of them says, cracking his knuckles.

"Yes, do so, this peasant has disrespected the way of things." A man says from behind, "Peasant prepare to face the force of The King's Death."

The 3 large brutes that had been blocking my path attacked, I side stepped the first strike, and used the iron bracers I wore to deflect the second, the third missed me entirely, they were using spears. I noticed that they had swords strapped to their belt, before I quite knew what I was doing, I grabbed one of the swords, and pulled it free of it sheathe. I used it to cut a gash into one of the attackers, through a chink in his armour, as his blood splattered, I felt all reason leave me, they were trying to kill me. I dropped the bag with the food I had just bought, and drove the sword into the same chink I had cut him through, dodging the others spears all the while. He gasped, trying to catch his breath, I pulled the sword free, he dropped to the ground, trying to catch his breath, I continued my attack, quickly immobilizing the other 2.

Behind them the officer who had tried to buy a sword from earlier, stood, looking frightened, he drew his sword, and assumed a fighting stance, it was sloppy. I lunged at him, as my sword made contact with his ankle, he made a yelping noise, and dropped to the ground, somehow managing to hold onto his sword. Just as I was about to go in for the kill, a crimson scimitar blocked my attack, surprised I jumped back, and re-examined my opponent. Standing between me and him, was a man dressed in royal dragon hide armour, his cloak was red and gold, and he was wielding 2 swords. He put off an aura of power, frankly he was frightening, he seemed to be on another level from me, I hesitated, and ultimately ceased my attack.

"Are you a member of The King's Death?" I ask him, my muscles tensing to strike.

"I am not." He replies, sheathing his swords.

"Then get out of my way." I tell him, raising my sword.

"We need to talk." He says, only he's not in front of me anymore, he's behind me.

Startled I start to swing around, but he catches my arm, and immobilizes me.

"What is there to talk about?" I ask him, trying to move, his strength was inhuman.

"Do you know about the 'Saviour'?" he says, his voice lower than before.

"Of course, everyone knows about the Saviour." I answer.

"Did you know he had a son?" The man asks, time seems to be slowing down.

"No, I did not."

"Interesting." He says, as he releases my arm.

"What do you want?" I ask him, rubbing my wrist.

"I wanted to see the descendent." He says turning around, as he turns around, I see his right arm is glowing.

"The 'descendent'?" I say, confused, "Who are you?"

"I apologize for not introducing myself sooner, my name is Devarius Hex, I've been travelling for quite some time to find you it seems."

"What would you want with me?" I say, perplexed.

"You're the descendant, the descendant of the saviour." He responds, turning to look at me, with hard eyes.

"I am not, I'm not some special descendant I'm a bloody blacksmith!" I insist.

"And I assume beating down 3 trained warriors is part of the job?" Devarius says, looking at me with a serious expression.

"Well… no, but I'm not unfamiliar with a sword." I reply.

"The blood of the Saviour gives you his instincts." Devarius says, reaching into a pouch on his belt.

"What the hell do you mean 'his instincts?!" I yell, my head feeling dizzy.

"You just fought off 3 trained men, and you question what I'm saying?"

"I… I don't know, I just…." I stammer.

"You're looking a little pale, you alright?" Devarius says, a look of concern on his face.

"I… I'm just a little dizzy." I manage, as I pass out.

I'm standing on a high cliff, overlooking a battlefield, smoke rises from burning war machines, 2 massive figures clash from opposing lines. Trying to reason what they are, I figure they're gods, Saradomin, and Zamorak most likely, the scene is gruesome, even from high on a cliff, rivers and lakes run red. War cries, and clashing weapons can be heard for miles, I try to look away, but my body won't listen to me.

The scene continues for some time before I finally turn around, behind me is a massive glowing orb, and a pillar of light, I raise my hands and channel magical energies. The feeling is almost painful, draining, I feel the life flow into the giant glowing orb, then back into me, then back 2 fold into the orb. This continues for several minutes, before something finally happens, the orb shoots into the sky, the sky seems to break. The energy ripples through the world, the sky darkens, and the fighting stops, a booming cry can be heard over everything, the cry of Zamorak, realizing what's happening. Suddenly light rains down on the landscape, digging deep trenches, and incinerating combatants, panic ensues, a boom like thunder, seems to crack the ground.

Then suddenly it's all over, the sky returns to normal, and I turn around, the landscape is scarred, and the titan forms of the gods are gone. I collapse to the ground, my right eye seems to burn, my body seems weak, I try to stand, but succeed only in rising to a kneel. Suddenly my right eye goes black, then pops, blood splatters on the ground in front of me, and begins dripping down my face. My hand goes to the bleeding socket, everything seems heavier, my body feels like its aging, I drop to the ground, blood pouring from my right eye socket. The pain of it all is excruciating, but I can't seem to wake up, then suddenly the world fades to black, and I wake, I'm lying in a bed, not my own.

"Where am I?" I ask to the air above me.

"Burthorpe's infirmary, you passed out." Devarius says standing over me.

"I dreamed something… something awful…" I say, trying to wrap my mind around the images I had just seen.

"It was pretty awful, the final battle." Devarius says, wearing many more years than his face should allow.

"You speak like you were there, who the hell are you?' I ask him, sitting up in the bed.

"I was a friend of your ancestors, the saviour in particular, and I've followed your family for over 300 years." He answers, smiling a bit.

"H… how old are you?" I ask him.

"I lost count some time ago, but a good estimate is somewhere over 1500 years." He answers, leaning back in the chair he's sitting in.

"What do you want with me?"

"The clan wars are close to ending, and there are 2 main clans fighting at this point." He says, looking solemn, "The one that's taken over your town, and the one from the north."

"The King's Death, and Valhallius." I reply.

"Yes, one must win, and I believe the descendant should align himself with one, you must choose a side in this war your dream is proof that it is time to end the bloodshed!" Devarius says, his face darkening with a look of despair.

"I refuse, I'm neutral in all this I will not align myself with one side or the other." I reply, getting up from the bed.

Devarius' face displays a look of controlled anger, then it dissipates, and he breaks into a laugh.

"You're just like him, you really are." Devarius says, wiping his right eye.

"Am I? How could I be like someone who died centuries ago?"

"When confronted with a situation like this, the saviour would've chosen to remain neutral as well, following the teachings of Guthix." Devarius says, his face filled with a look of nostalgia.

"Guthix? I have only ever heard legends about Guthix, the tale goes that the books harboured by druids were burned when he died." I answer, putting my cloak on.

"The books that taught the lessons of Guthix preached balance, I followed it, the saviour followed it, and we both came to the conclusion that the gods pushed the world in imbalance, thus it became necessary to deal with them permanently. You saw the result of that decision in your dream."

"How did you know that was what my dream was about?" I ask him.

"Because you passed out when I started talking about the saviour, his blood was irradiated with the divine power of Saradomin from years of exposure from his eye, this passed his most powerful memories into his children, born after he gained the eye." Devarius says, standing from his chair, "That proves that you are the descendant!"

"I will not assist you in this goddamn war!" I yell at him, angry at his persistence.

"You don't have a choice anymore." He almost whispers as I turn and leave the infirmary.

I walked across Burthorpe, back to my smithy, when I arrived all I saw was a smouldering ruin, left over from the destruction of my family's greatest treasure. I dropped to my knees, everything I had had was gone, left in its place, was a smouldering hole, filled with rage and sorrow. A horse comes up behind me, then an announcer reads off a scroll,

"By order of the first minister of The King's Death, Burthorpe is to provide its armies with 1 male for every piece of property owned, your assets will be repossessed if you are single and own property." The man read, behind him several men in heavy army came to a stop their armour clattering.

"You'd better listen, peasant." A familiar voice says from behind me.

"YOU!" I yell as I whip around, and wrapped my hands around his throat, tears streaming from my eyes.

"YOU'VE TAKEN EVERYTHING I HAD AWAY FROM ME! MY FORGE, MY FAMILY'S HOME, AND EVERYTHING PASSED TO ME BY MY PARENTS!" I yell as I stop the flow of air into his lunges.

Shocked onlookers backed away, the soldiers of The King's Death began to intervene, then the man on the horse held up his hand. They stopped and look at him confused, the man I'm strangling starts gurgling, his eyes turn bloodshot, then begin to roll back in his head. I dig my thumbs into his neck, blood squirts from where my nails make contact with his skin, he starts spitting blood from his mouth. Then he stops moving, stops struggling, his body slumps, kept aloft only my hands on his neck, a ringing begins in my ears, everything seems to be moving slow. I release his neck, the body of the man that had once stood before me, now lay in a heap on the ground, dead.

A man from behind the group of armoured fighters, begins clapping, then walks through the crowd, his armour is gilded, his cloak adorned with oriental designs, and the symbols of The King's Death. His figure is otherwise slender, his face has vicious angles, almost inhuman, he looked at me with blood thirsty eyes he had obviously enjoyed the killing of one of his comrades.

"Bravo, bravo, I haven't seen such glorious bloodlust since the battle of Rimmington!" He says, his voice resonates with a Kandarin accent.

"I… I killed a man…" I stammer, shocked at what I had just done.

"Yes, yes you did, and you've earned yourself a spot on one of The King's Death, special squads." He says, squatting to make eye contact with me, as I dropped to the ground, still in shock at what I had done.

"Wh… why…" I say, frightened tears rolling down my face.

"You've already drawn the blood of a comrade, thus I have no other choice but to place you in a special squad, or else I would have to kill you." The man says, grabbing my chin, and examining my face as I struggle to comprehend the fact that I was now a murderer.

"Welcome to The King's Death." He says as I black out.

In my dream, this time I see happier images, a field overlooking a pristine marble city, a small house, and in the house a beautiful women. I realized that I was with her, we had a child, things seemed happy, I was telling her that I had to leave, that I was being deployed to Karamja. I walked out of the house with the hope to return to it soon, then I was on a tropical island, the waves crashed against the shore, I sat half naked in a barrack. Then I was panicking, trying to get off the island, and back to the mainland, that pristine city was under attack. Suddenly I was in that little house, it was burning, I burst through one of the doors, then sunk my sword into a man dressed in black armour.

Then I took a baby from him as he slumped to the ground, I felt tears in my eyes, I left the room, I helped the woman, and we fled. Then I was on a boat, the women seemed to be mortally wounded, I jumped overboard to save her, by taking to her to someone who could save her. Then I was in another house, by her bedside, she seemed to be recovering, I was happy, happier than I had ever been. Then I woke up, the air was cold, the smell of the air reeked of rotting flesh, I sat up, to see several other people with me, one of them was nibbling on a leg, a severed leg. Another was sharpening his knife, and licking his teeth, which were yellow, and had pieces stuck between them, there was one in the corner, rocking back and forth a crazy look in his eyes.

The man sitting next to me seemed to be pretty normal, he seemed to be frightened, and was panicking, we were on a barge.

"So," I say to him, he jumps when he sees I'm awake, "I'm assuming you're here for a similar reason I am."

"You killed one them, didn't you?" He says, his eyes filled with guilt, and regret.

"Yes, I did, I strangled him in a fit of rage, and then I blacked out." I say, trying to forget that awful event.

"They were trying to take my son, I never meant to kill him, I only wanted to save my boy." he responds, putting his hands to his ears, "Now I've ended up in a worse hell."

"Listen, you and me look to be the only sane ones here." I say gesturing to other people on the barge, "We gotta stick together, keep each other sane, you know?"

"I understand what your saying..." He says, looking at me with fear in his eyes, "but will it be enough to survive?

"Yes it will be, we'll make it through this." I reply, patting him on the back, "My name's Suiro by the way, I was a blacksmith back in Burthorpe."

"My name is Hans, I was a merchant, nice to meet you."

"You're both gonna be eaten alive when we get there." One of the crazies says, licking his knife, "They want' us to be bat shit crazy, then they can use us on suicide missions!" he lets out a disgusting sounding laugh.

"Ya, dey gonna teach us' ta kill wit our' bare hands." The man nibbling on the leg says, holding up his left hand.

"I hear they kill whoever they think won't make it, no warning they just stick a spear in the back of your head." The frightened one in the corner says, looking nervously from side to side.

"We'll see bout' at, here we are'"

Off in the distance we see a shore, one of the men standing on the shore jumps, then lands in the barge, he has scars all over his face, he looks at us from head to toe. Immediately he draws one of 5 bronze swords attached to his belt, and impales the frightened man in the corner through the chest, he lets out a croak, and begins gasping for air. He pulls the sword free, then returns it to its sheathe, he speaks with a low and intense voice,

"Listen up psychos, each of you are going to get a bronze sword, when this barge reaches the shore, you have 15 days to reach the volcano, if you make it, you get a place in the special squad, if you don't, well I pity your soul." He says, unsheathing the swords and dropping them on the floor of the barge, "If I decide I don't like you, I will kill you, so pray I don't find you in the mountains, if you die close to the shore, have the courtesy to die in the barge, makes it easier at the end, and gives the next batch something to snack on." The man says, his lips curling in an insane smile.

"This his hell." I mutter under my breath.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" the man yells, grabbing one of the swords and attempting to impale me.

I see the sword moving in slow motion, I use my hand to move the path of the sword so it passes by my head, then I grab the man's arm. I twist it so the sword is released, the man doesn't seemed phased in fact he looks pleased that I had the balls to do that.

"I guess that's my sword." I say, he nods with a grin like a hyena.

The barge crashes onto the shore of an icy mountain range, immediately the crazies grab themselves swords from the pile, and make off into the distance. I continue to sit on the barge, Hans next me, we've both selected swords, but the situation was still sinking in.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" The man says, slowly unsheathing the final bronze sword.

"We're going." I say, standing and prompting Hans to do the same.

We leave the barge, and make our way into the mountain range, survival would be harsh in these mountains, there was little to eat beyond the occasional rabbit, or wolf. We walked for the rest of the day, the air was cold, it stung our faces, eventually we decided to call it a night and build a campsite. Somehow, I managed to get a fire started, Hans digs out a shelter in the snow, then reinforces it with dead branches from a nearby tree.

The night is cold, and we sleep close to conserve our body heat, in the middle of the night we hear a blood curdling scream, both of us jolt awake, and reach for our swords. I go out first, survey the landscape, then decide it wasn't near us, I go back into our shelter, and sleep the rest of the night. The next morning I wake with a cramped neck, we quickly breakdown our campsite, then continue in the direction we agreed the volcano was in.

"The scream last night…" Hans says, shivering from the cold.

"Yeah, I think that man found one of the crazies." I say, I glance at him for a moment, he was pale, and shaking, "Would you like to borrow my cloak?"

"Are you sure? It is pretty cold out here." He replies, a look of desire in his eyes.

"I dress warmly, I can afford to lend off my cloak." I respond, removing my cloak, and handing it to Hans, he takes it with almost greedy hands.

"They could've at least given us warm clothes to wear." Hans gripes as we ascend one of the smaller mountains.

"I think that's the point of this, to kill the people who aren't tough enough to make it." I say, as I survey the range from atop the mountain.

"Who could survive this?" Hans says, sounding depressed.

"We're doing pretty well right now." I reply, trying to lighten the mood.

"What about when we get there?" Hans says, looking off into the distance.

"I don't know, I just don't know." I answer, dreading the future.

It takes us 9 days to reach the volcano, we're the only ones who make it, the man with the scarred face looks happy. In the time it took us to get there, we came across the dead bodies of the other 2 recruits, and were forced to eat one of them. We were impeded by the local wildlife, and bandits, ultimately by the time we reached the volcano, we were physical exhausted, and mentally destroyed.

"Good job to both of you." The man says.

"I am Sergeant Cleaver, the commanding psycho of special squad." He says, spreading his arms in a semi-welcoming gesture, "Welcome to the special squad, your final test is to fight each other, he who survives, gets a place on the special squad."

"You can't do this!" Hans screams, his eyes filled with terror.

"Oh I can, and I will." Sergeant Cleaver replies, drawing a wicked looking rune Cleaver from its sheathe on his back."

"Hans, listen I don't think we have a choice in this matter, we have to fight." I say, the Sergeant nods in agreement.

"But I can't fight you, you're my friend, I can't fight you, even if it means my death." Hans says, throwing down his sword.

"What about your family?" The Sergeant says, his grin expanding, his face looking more and more psychotic.

"Don't you dare hurt my family!" Hans screams, his face contorted in horror.

"Then fight!" Cleaver yells pointing to the sword on the ground.

With tears streaming down his face, he picks it up with shaking hands, and assumes a fighting stance, I raise my sword, and tap the tip of his. He nods in agreement, then lunges, I parry, then counter, he manages to block my first blow, as we get into the fight, things seem to slow down for me. Before I know what's going on, I disarm Hans, and sink my sword into his stomach, he lets out a gasp of pain, and falls forward, pushing the blade further in. His blood drips down onto the hilt, my hands still wrapped around it, I nap back to my senses, and see a horribly sight, my friend, impaled by my sword. I scream, then start violently shaking, I drop to the ground, and let go of the sword, Hans falls forward onto me.

"Hans…" I stammer, my body feeling colder.

"Suiro… listen to me…" Hans manages.

"Yes what?" I say, feeling my body beginning to get weaker.

"I… I need you… to tell… my fa… my family…. That I… that I love them…" He manages, not long after he dies, his blood soaks into my clothes, I sit there, in shock.

Just as I'm coming to my senses, Sergeant Cleaver pulls the bronze sword from Hans motionless body, the sword rips open his lower abdomen. His internal organs became external, and got thrown all over me, I screamed, the sight was too horrible to properly process. I fall backwards trying to get away from the sight, Sergeant Cleaver grabs one of Hans organs and puts it over my head, I scream again. My body is panicking, I try to look away, close my eyes, but the other psychos force my eyes open, the air stings them, I scream even louder, struggling to push them away. They pin my arms and legs down, then put the organs over my head, Sergeant Cleaver picks them up, one at a time, then pops them, and lets them fall over my face.

At one point I swallowed some of it, at that point, I started laughing, this couldn't be real, this was a dream, an awful, awful dream. I laughed, I felt my face contort in a wretched smile, and I stopped struggling, the psychos let me go, I sat up, then continued to laugh. They pull me to my feet, and pat me on my back, my vision is clouded, things seem blurry, I take a step forward, it doesn't feel like I'm in control of my body anymore. They clothe me in new armour, and a cloak displaying the sings of The King's Death, then we begin the long trip back to the shore, leaving my old clothes, and friend where they had fallen. When we reach the shore a boat is waiting, we board it, it takes us to Port Phasmatys, where we disembark and make way to Canifis.

"Watch the sides of the road, monsters enjoy ambushing convoys, even those with The King's Death." Sergeant Cleaver says, tapping his sword belt.

"They're blood will taste good over a roast." I say, licking my lips.

"Your bloodlust makes me jealous." Says one of the other members of the convoy.

"Careful what you say, Chi, might rend you with the enemy." Cleaver says, letting out a hearty laugh.

"What happens when we get to Canifis?" I ask Cleaver, "I am eager to baptize my new blade."

"When we reach Canifis, we're to wait for further orders, but nothing says we can't have a bit of fun while we wait, there's plenty of people in Canifis, you can have as much fun as you want when we get there." Cleaver replies, a look of anticipation on his face.

It takes us 2 days to reach Canifis from Port Phasmatys, when we arrive, the local inhabitants seal themselves into their dwellings. I lick my lips as I look around, so many people to kill…

"May I?" I ask aloud, noisily drawing my sword.

"No one's going to stop you." Cleaver replies.

I lunge from my horse, and tear through a boarded up window, inside is a family, 1 women and 2 children, I feel a twinge of pain in my chest. I sink my blade into the first child, the into the second, the mother screams in horror as I pull my blade free of her daughter's body. She stares at me with fear in her eyes, I stop, feeling like this wasn't the right course of action.

"It will all be over soon…" I whisper to her, as I run my left hand down her cheek, tears pour from her eyes.

I behead her, her blood tastes good, I feel a twinge of guilt in the back of my mind, but I push it away, and proceed to the next house. I do this three times before Cleaver finally stops me, by then, I had tears in my eyes, and a smile of wretched insanity.

"You're crying." Cleaver says, pointing at my eyes.

"It's… it's… it's just I've never been able to inflict so much pain before…" I whimper, a mix of despair, and enjoyment bubbling up in the pit of my stomach.

"Intoxicating isn't it?" Cleaver replies, licking his lips, "Kill this one slowly, it makes the feeling last longer."

"Ok…" I slowly dig the blade into her thigh, she screams, I almost pull the sword out in horror, but I keep pushing it in.

She screams in agony, the blade reaches her bone, it takes a bit of effort, but eventually the blade passes through the bone. She has a look of horror on face, tears stained her clothes, for some reason I wanted to stop, to stop inflicting pain on her. I ripped the sword free, the plunge it into her chest, then twist, she makes gasping noises as she slowly, and painfully dies.

"You were right…" I say, my voice laced with insane pleasure, "That was ecstasy."

"Just wait till we get a mission, it will be even better." Cleaver says, his arm on my shoulder.

"I can't wait…" I say, tears falling down my face.

That night I dreamed about a battle at a volcano, the ground was utterly black, I swung my sword from enemy to enemy, it seemed to cut through their armour like a knife through butter. I jumped, the ground cracked, I came down with my sword, and it plunged into the head of a demon, the demon exploded into a shower of toxic bits. I block a blow with my shield, the battle has been long, I can feel it in my arms, I sink the blade into a chink in an enemy's armour, and blood sprays me.

For some reason the scene disgusts me, I feel my right eye begin to radiate power, then I'm floating, beams of energy shoot from my eye into the opposing warriors. I launch myself at the volcano, on top my friend is fighting an ancient dragon, I join him, we fight as though we've been fighting with each other for years. The dragon doesn't stand a chance, it falls into the volcano, the volcano begins to rumble, I struggle to keep myself standing, then fall to one knee. I hear his voice, a voice I'd heard before, but from where?

"*******, We need to get our forces out of here!" He yells, his face is battered, streaked with soot, but it looks familiar.

"I'll get as many people as I can away from here, ****, I'm gonna need your help to get them all!" I yell, my voice is also different, more courageous if there can be such a thing.

We begin to channel energy, his arm is glowing, my eye burns with power, we spread a field of energy over the battlefield. Combatants stop and look in horror as the volcano begins to erupt, straining, we begin to activate a teleport spell. The volcano explodes, scared combatants begin running away, my eyes gaze briefly upon someone dressed in rune plate, and a cloak of blue and white. Tears fall from my eyes, then I close them and strain to activate the powers of the teleport even more, it begins to activate. I think of home, I think of a place called 'Lumbridge', the spell goes off, the world is engulfed in white, then I wake with a start.

"Good your awake, we've been given a mission." Cleaver says, looking in my direction.

"What is the job?" I reply, getting up to put my gear on.

"We're to eradicate Burthorpe." Cleaver says, a smile on his face.

"I'm from Burthorpe…" I almost came to my senses at that moment, but an unseen force pushed me back into insanity, I grin, "Sounds fun."

Cleaver, stares at me with a look that says he knew what was going on inside my head.

"Then let's get to it."

We use the Lodestone network to get to Burthorpe quickly, then begin slicing and dicing, with no regard to who was killed. We set fire to the buildings, the people, whatever we thought would burn good, everything else we cut to ribbons. The entire time my eyes were filled with tears, but the feeling was pure ecstasy to my unstable mind, I pushed harder, then my sword broke. By the time it did however, the battle was already over, I stood on a hill overlooking the burning town, Cleaver came up next to me.

"Did your sword break?" He says, glancing at my sword.

"Yes, but it can still kill…" I respond, turning around and sinking the remainder of the blade into Cleaver, he lets a croak, "You're right, watching them suffer is better than killing them quickly."

I twist the stump of a blade, Cleaver winces from the pain, it's obvious he's trying not to scream.

"Scream, scream and I'll stop." I say, twisting the blade even more, feeling Cleaver's blood drip down my hand.

"I don't scream at pain anymore." Cleaver says defiantly.

"Then die slowly." I say as I give the blade one final push.

I dislocate his arms too just to be safe, then tied him to a tree, he sputters curses at me until I begin to walk away.

"That was for Hans." I whisper, a single solitary tear rolling down my face, this would be the last time I cried for a while.


	2. Chapter 2, Chi the bloodthirsty

Burthorpe burned in the distance as the cart lumbered forward, filled with the members of the special squad that were still alive. No one had questioned me for killing Sergeant Cleaver, it only reinforced that horribly dismembering people was the right thing to do. My sword had broken during the fight, and I had no weapon to fight with, the other members of the special squad refused to provide me with a new one, saying that I should just steal one from a dead body.

We reached Taverley, a town also controlled by The King's Death, to link up with a convoy headed to the capital of The King's Death's territory, Varrock. In the wake of the end of the second God wars, the kingdom of Misthalin experienced a violent revolution. The king, who wanted to expand its borders, was killed, the group who accomplished this started calling themselves 'The King's Death'. They rose to political prominence in Misthalin, and swiftly absorbed the other rebel groups, hence the 'clan' was born, seeking to take over all of Gielinor. The trip took a week, when we reached the outskirts of Varrock, a group of protesters blocked our path.

"Make way! Make way!" The driver yelled at the mob.

"We refuse to live under your tyranny anymore!" one of the protesters yelled in response.

I stand and step off the cart, then approach the mob, the people in it looked scared, _probably suicidal vagrants_, I think to myself as I stand face to face with the apparent leader of the mob.

"Death by asphyxiation is a painful way to go, unless you wish to experience it, I recommend you move." I say to him, my voice a monotone.

"We aren't scared of you anymore!" He yells in reply.

I lick my teeth, then wrapped my hands around his throat, he struggles, but he's weak compared to me.

"Then we'll do this the hard way!" I scream, laughing as the man struggled against my hands.

The other members of the special squad jump from the cart, and sink their weapons into the other protesters. By the time the man in my hands is dead, the entire mob has been slaughtered blood runs down the street. I drop the body of the man I had just strangled, then I get a thought in my head, _we should make an example of this._

"String them up in the trees, make sure the rope goes through their bodies make it look painful." I say, licking my lips, my eyes darting around from body to body.

"And who put you in charge!" One of the psychos says, pointing at me with his bloodied claws.

I walk up to him, he's a rather short man with bones dangling from a necklace around his neck he wore a mask. I don't even hesitate to snap his neck, the rest of psychos laugh, sizing up the man's body, like you would a beast for the cooking. I take his claws, _these will work nicely_, I think to myself, I continue to walk into Varrock while the other psychos proceeded to cut up the man I had killed. We continue on to Varrock palace not long after, a gruesome warning left behind us as to what happens when one defies The King's Death. We enter the palace to be met by the general in charge of managing the special squad, General Plexus Strap.

"Welcome to Varrock!" he says as we enter the palace.

Plexus is the same man who conscripted me into the special squad, his cloak was ornate, his gilded armour shown brilliantly in the light. As I get a better look at him, I realize that he's not human, he's an elf his ears are ever so slightly pointed. His eyes are filled with the same longing to kill that I had seen when he examined me after I strangled that man.

"It's good to see that you've all made it alright, but who would attack the special squad?" He says, smiling evilly.

"A group of suicidal hobos." I answer almost sarcastically.

His face immediately fills with anger, he obviously doesn't like being talked back to when I look behind me the psychos show something I haven't seen from them before, fear.

"Oh really?" He says, his voice dripping with malice, "And what is your name recruit?"

"My name is Sui… no, my name is Chi." I say, my mind struggling to choose between the names.

"Suiro…" The General whispers, "They renamed you did they?"

"Yes we did sir, it's what we do with all new recruits." A man from behind me says.

The General doesn't even hesitate to impale him with some kind of dagger on a chain, the man lets out a gasp, then falls to the ground.

"I asked him, not you." He says, pulling the dagger back under his cloak, "All of you are to wait in that room over there." The General points to a room just to the right, "The council will be discussing where you would be best utilized next."

The General catches my shoulder as I begin to move toward the room, he whispers in my ear,

"Kill them all, and prove your loyalty to The King's Death."

I smile in agreement, then proceed into the room, the inside of the room is a chapel, dedicated to Saradomin it obviously hasn't been used in a while. Some of the psychos sit down, others go to destroy some of the holy symbols left on the altar, I stand for a few moments in front of the altar. Then I kill them all, my body moves with speed and agility none of the other psychos can match, it's over within 10 minutes. I sit down on the altar, one foot on the ground, one on the altar, and begin licking the blood off my claws. About 2 hours later, General Plexus returns, with another man in tow, his rank appears to be 'General Commander'.

"This is the prowess of the Descendant!" Plexus says, spreading his arms to the gruesome scene inside the room, "With him on our side we will win this war!"

"I see what you mean, but did you really have to have him kill the special squad?" the man says, covering his nose with his hand.

"Oh don't go covering your nose now commander…" I say, my voiced laced with the unstable emotions swirling around my head, "Breath it in, embrace it, embrace the insanity!"

I burst into a laugh, General Plexus joins in not long after the man next to him however, looks terrified.

"What have you done to him?" he says, staring at me with a horrified expression on his face.

"We did what was necessary, and now we have him on our side, that's all that matters right?" Plexus says to the man, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know what disgusts me more, what you've turned him into, or what you had him do just know." The man says, trying to pull away from Plexus, Plexus grips his shoulder even tighter.

"Chi, why don't you come over here and teach our guest a lesson about humility…"

I speak no words as I walk across the chamber, as I get closer the man struggles even more, when I reach, the terror in his eyes is pure ecstasy. I slowly rub the side of my right index claw down his face, he has tears in his eyes I lick my lips as I sink my claw into his shoulder. He doesn't scream initially, I drive the claw further into his shoulder.

"You don't have to do this!" He screams.

"Oh but I do, I have no other purpose but to do this…" I whisper as I pull the claw free, "My only purpose in this world is to kill weaklings like yourself!"

I laugh as I decapitate him with my claws, his corpse hits the ground with a satisfying thump, I look at Plexus he gives me a nod of approval. They ship me almost immediately to the front lines they sent me in first, to disorient the enemy before the main force struck. I was incredibly successful in the job that I had been given, they promoted me quickly, but I didn't really care, all that mattered was the thrill of the kill.

1207 PC, late autumn

A cold wind blew through the air, it was getting on toward winter, I had completed 27 missions successfully, and had a death toll of 2,299 people. My classification within The King's Death military force was 'Assassin', they gave me orders, but I did not always have to follow them. I walked down the path toward Ardougne, my current mission was to kill the king of Kandarin, who was, according to intelligence, staying in Ardougne. My eyes were locked in the direction of Ardougne, but I hadn't eaten in 2 days, and my vision would occasionally blur for a split second, off in the distance there seemed to be someone standing, watching me. The figure vanished when I blinked, _there shouldn't be anyone out here_ I think to myself as I push forward, the figure appeared again, this time closer to me.

I decided that it was a hallucination from the lack of food, as the sun sets in the distance I set up a makeshift shelter to sleep in. In the morning, I get back to the path, and come across a hut, with smoke rising from its chimney, I go in through the window, startling the person inside. He wore a blue and white cloak with a scale and a set of crossed swords on it, I held up my claws, but hesitated to kill him. _What is happening to me?_ I think as I lunge at him, he's not as helpless as he appears, he dodges my strike, and my claws sink into the wall. He casts a spell, suddenly my body can't move anymore, I grit my teeth as I stare at him, anger rising in my stomach.

"I will use your skin as a coat for this!" I yell at him.

"Would you now?" He replies, staring at me with eyes that seemed to see right through me.

"Why are you staring at me!?" I scream in agitation.

"Trying to get a good look at the Descendant, and what they've turned you into." He replies, sitting down at a table, and sipping some tea he materialized in his hand, "You probably don't know who I am, or the clan that I belong to, do you?"

"Release me old man!" I yell, annoyed at his query.

"I am Aethenous, leader of The Loyal Elite." He says, taking another sip of his tea.

"Do I look like I give a damn who you are?!"

"No, but that's all the more reason to introduce myself." He says, placing his tea down, and picking up a book next to it, "We're not going to let The King's Death kill the king of Kandarin."

"How did you know that was my mission?" I ask, surprised by his statement.

"Well, why else would 'Chi the Bloodthirsty' be dispatched to this part of Gielinor, it's certainly not the frontlines, and since The King's Death is primarily concerned with ending the lineage of monarchies, it would make sense that you would be on a mission of assassination to Ardougne." Aethenous says, looking up briefly from his book.

An hour passes before much of anything else happens, after an hour, a knock comes at the door, when Aethenous answers it a man in Royal Dragon hide armour enters.

"I knew an Aethenous many years ago who was in control of The Loyal Elite, you wouldn't happen to be related to him by chance?" He says, sitting down in a chair opposite Aethenous.

"Aethenous is both a name and a title bestowed upon the selected leader of The Loyal Elite, thus the likelihood of I myself being related to the Aethenous you knew, is slim." Aethenous replies, "I am Aethenous the 89th, 90th leader of The Loyal Elite."

"Interesting, didn't know that." The man replies, pouring himself a cup of tea.

"Would you please cut the chit chat and tell me why you haven't killed me yet?" I say to the 2 men sipping tea.

The one in the Royal Dragon hide seemed to darken a little when he hears my voice, he stands and turns to look at me. His face is filled with a fiery anger, he holds up his hand, and suddenly my body moves against my will, he sits me down in a nearby chair, then ties me up and removes my claws. He pulls up a chair in front of me, and sits down, his arms crossed, staring at me intently.

"Do you know who I am?" He asks after a long moment.

"I do not, why would I?" I answer, my head seems to hurt a bit when he asks.

"What have they done to you?" he almost whispers, his face softening a little.

"They've shown me who I am!" I say, gritting my teeth in a smile.

"This is not who you are." The man replies, placing his hand on my head.

He closes his eyes for a moment, when he opens them, he has tears in his eyes he unties the ropes, and walks to the table with the tea on it.

"Aethenous, undo the binding spell and run, he needs to see this through for himself, so commands the Saviour." The man says, hastily finishing his tea.

"I do not place religious trust in the Saviour, but knowing his name from the ancient texts of my clan, I will abide by his wishes." Aethenous replies, the man in the Royal Dragon hide vanishes.

"It would seem my life is at an end, I am just glad that it will be by the hands of a man descended from *******." Aethenous says, his voice seems to mute when he says the name, then smiling he raised his hand to undo the binding spell.

I shredded his frail body in a split second, he never screamed, nor did he show any sign of fear, he smiled even after his head lay on the ground. I ate the food in his hut, then continued on my way to Ardougne, but the thought that plagued my mind was the identity of that man in the Royal Dragon hide. It took me another day to reach Ardougne, when I reached it, the king was holding a rally for peace he was wearing white robes, and held a sign of Saradomin. The white robes showed the blood quite spectacularly, I took the sign of Saradomin as a trophy of the mission, his guards came at me. None of them were a match for me, I easily killed them, and began running for the gates of the city they were closing them.

I placed the sign around my neck, using the cord attached to it, then used my claws to quickly scale the wall of Ardougne. I ran for an hour to get out of range of the city, and hide, when I hid I took out the sign I had taken, it was a silver 4 pointed star. Everyone knew that the gods had been banished from Gielinor, but still churches dedicated to them existed, and in some cases thrived. This star had come to represent more than Saradomin, many saw it as a sign of peace, and was used by those who wished for the clan wars to end. I don't know why, but I put the sign of Saradomin back on, and placed it under my shirt, the decision almost felt as though someone had manipulated me to do it.

As I drifted into sleep in the small cave I had hid in, a figure appeared at the edges of my vision same as the figure I had seen on my way to Ardougne. I tried to bring myself to alertness, but for some reason I couldn't, I could however make out some details about the man. He was dressed in simples clothes, clothes a farmer might wear, he had a dagger strapped to his belt, and a brown, worn cloak, flying from his back. I don't know why, but seeing him, seemed to calm me, I could just barely manage to keep myself in a state of semi-alertness. The figure walked toward me, as he did, his clothes changed, slowly getting more intricate as he approached me, by the time he reached me, he was dressed in ornate Dragon plate armour.

He began to reach out with his hand, kneeling as he did, I tried to bat his hand away, but I was so tired I could barely move. He stroked my face, his face was aged and weathered, on his right eye shown brilliantly the sign of Saradomin. As he continued to be close to me, I felt hot tears begin in my eyes, slowly, I fell asleep the cold of the world didn't seem to affect me anymore.

"Sleep well Suiro." A voice said as the world faded to black.

1208 PC, early spring

Flowers were often used as a way to tell someone how you felt about them, red flowers to woo a girl, white flowers at a wedding. I preferred white flowers, they showed blood the best, I lunged the right flank of my opponent with my claws, he blocked. I tried slashing across his front, again he managed to block again, I continued moving forward, forcing him to take a step or 2 back.

"You're good!" I yell, a manic smile plastered across my face.

"As are you!" the knight responds.

I speed up my attacks, my claws connected with his weapons multiple times in a second, eventually I managed to find a gap in his defence. I shot my right claw through the gap, and pull it across his purely defended side, blood flew to land on the white flowers that covered the ground on which we fought. He screamed, and fell to one knee, clutching his side, I stopped my attack, and stood above him, trying to catch my breath, he looked up at me I could see his terrified eyes through his visor.

"You are a good warrior, I take no pleasure in doing this." I say as I swiftly slit his throat, "Find peace in the afterlife."

I don't know how long I had been fighting for The King's Death, the days seemed to blur together, the pleasure I had had once had in killing was gone. Now it had simply become part of the job, kill, report, kill, report, it had become a tedious cycle, the days seemed grey. I walked down the path from Edgeville to Varrock, the flowers were in full bloom they made the air sweet and it was awful.

Infantrymen walked by me, weary, but returning to the front, they saluted me as I passed them, I tried to ignore them. Varrock came into view, a wall was being constructed around the city, to turn it into a city fortress I walked past the construction crew, all of them slaves. General Plexus was in his office as usual, writing reports about my activities across Gielinor, I had become his most priced asset as a general. He saw me enter, and placed down his paper, standing and in a swift motion, gliding around his desk, to my side. He wraps his arms around me, in a sexual manner, then slowly began moving his hand down my front, I hated it.

"Welcome back, Chi…" He says, his voice filled with lust.

"I have eliminated the last of the old knights of Misthalin, General." I report.

"Oh, no need to be so formal Chi." He says, reaching for my belt.

"Formality maintains order." I say, the tone of my voice depressing.

"Would things be different if I was a women?" Plexus asks, reaching under my cloak to undo my belt.

"Your gender makes no difference in your position, order must be maintained." I reply, restraining myself from disembowelling him.

"Oh you're no fun at all." Plexus says, pulling away.

"Fun is not a part of the job." I answer, coldly.

"Well whatever, your next assignment is to find a way to kill King Arthur XVII, is has been a pain in our side for ages, take him out with extreme prejudice." Plexus says, returning to his desk.

As I turn to leave, a man enters the room, he passes me awkwardly, as I leave he begins talking to Plexus, I decide to listen in for a moment.

"…Supposedly he's been holed up in Keldagrim since Asgarnia fell…"

_Who?_ I think trying not to look too conspicuous.

"…Sure he can change genders?" Plexus says to the man, hearing it I know exactly what he's talking about.

"…Can, but there is no guarantee that the potion will work..."

I quickly walk away as one of Plexus's advisers approach the door, _it doesn't matter_, I think, _it doesn't affect me at all_. I push the thought out of my mind and start thinking about the mission, Camelot was a long way away, in the kingdom of Kandarin. It used to be a massive kingdom, but centuries diminished it, the royal family however still had considerable influence over Kandarin. The kingdom would fall, and it would be by my hand, and my claws, The King's Death would reign supreme, no matter how many people had to die.

"You didn't always think like that." Says a voice from behind me.

"Who are you?" I say, remembering the hut.

"You already know who I am, Suiro, pull the name out of that mess that you call a mind!" The man says, grabbing my shoulder, and trying to turn me around.

I whip around, and slash his face, he's obiviously caught offguard, because he falls to the ground, blood gushing from the wound. I stare at him with eyes filled with bloodlust, my right claws dripping with the blood of the man who thought I knew his name. He stares up at me with a mix of surprise, and anger.

"I DON'T KNOW YOU." I say, turning to go rent a horse.

"…You shouldn't have done that…" The man whispers, I almost don't hear it.

Suddenly, I feel a presence like a thousand demons standing behind me, then I feel a sword impale my chest. I gasp for air, then realize, that there is no sword in my chest, my hand flies to my chest, the feeling taking a while to dissipate. I turn around, fear the only emotion in my mind, my claws cut up my robes, and clank against my armour as I grip my chest. Behind me is a demon, no, a god, power seems to pulsate from every bit of his body, tiny ripples of energy form and run across the ground. He stares up at me, his eyes glow red, his right arm glows with the power of a forgotten god and suddenly I see the city suddenly destroyed.

"How…?" I say, as I drop to my knees, suddenly the city is restored, as though nothing ever happened, "…Who are you…?"

"I am Doom, Leader of The Reapers, and the last survivor of the age before the clan wars!" He says, his power cracking the ground around him, "People know me as Devarius Hex now, but it does not diminish the fact that I still possess the power of Ares!"

Sudddenly a knife on a chain strikes Doom, the power around him evaporates, and he drops to his knees. His arm goes limp, and becomes a sickly shade of grey, he seems to be struggling for real, Plexus stands in front of him he pulls the knife from Doom's shoulder. Doom winces then falls to the ground, I stand and approach Plexus, my body shaking uncontrollably, he stands over Doom, a smile on his face.

"Why… why…?" I stammer, staring at the unconscious body.

"I just saved your life Chi, you owe me a lot more now." Plexus says, patting my shoulder, "Or maybe one favour… you can pay me back later."

I piss myself, then pass out, for the first time in a year I dream, I'm in a forge I'm pounding a piece of hot iron. Then suddenly the fire from the forge begins engulfing the building, it doesn't hurt me, but everything else seems to burn. As the fire engulfs my vision, I see a face, the face seems familiar it's the face of a man, a wealthy one by the look of it his eyes become bloodshot, blood drips from his nose.

Then everything is black, but I see faces, hundreds of faces, all them in pain and agony, blood gushes from each of their mouths, and pools on the ground. It falls over me, I raise my hands, and look down at my body, I'm covered in blood, it keeps falling the ground is an ocean of blood. I stare at the black sky, the faces are nothing but skulls now, grim stars in an oblivion the scene fills me with fear. I start screaming, uncontrollably, I wake with a start, I'm in The King's Death's military hospital, Plexus is nowhere to be found, nor is Doom. I get up, it's midday, I get the doctor's attention and not long after they discharge me, finding nothing physically wrong with me, but my mind feels different.

_Who am I?_ I think to myself as I walk through the back alleys of Varrock, maybe my name wasn't Chi, but then what was it? I walk into a tavern, the establishment is known to be a rebel hideout, but I'm not going in to kill rebels, I'm going in to get a drink. I enter slowly, inside the light is dim, and the air smells of drink, and vomit, everyone inside stops what they're doing to look at me. I continue to walk in, several hide their faces I take a seat on one of the barstools, the bartender stares at me with a look of anger for a second before walking over to me. When he does, several patrons leave, obviously they think I'm here to rat them out, _filth, all of them_, I think to myself.

"What can I get you, sir?" The bartender says, keeping a cautionary distance.

"I'll have a bottle of whiskey, at half price of course." I say, suddenly I feel slightly angry at myself, "Actually, on second thought, I'll take it at full price."

"Sir, you're a member of The King's Death, you're entitled to a 50% discount on all products and services." The bartender says, his anger barely hidden.

"Fine, then sell it at half price, I don't really give a damn anyway." I say, annoyed at myself, and the bartender.

"Very good sir." He says, walking away to fetch a bottle.

The room is utterly silent, not the pianist is playing, I hear the faint, but distinct sound of weapons drawing. I turn around on the stool, and look at them, all of the patrons have some sort of blade ready, surrounding me. One of them approached me, his face had scars on it, from my claws, his cloak was a tattered blue and white rag with a scale and a set of crossed swords on it.

"You killed Aethenous." He says, levelling a sword at my throat, "I should kill you right here, but that would only lower me to your level."

"Oh please, slit my throat right now, I insist, I deserve after everything I've done.

He stands there for a moment confused, then gets ready to slash at me, I don't intend to block and counter, but before I know what I'm doing, he's lying on the floor dead.

"Anybody else want a turn? I warn you I can't control my reflexes…" I say, staring solemnly at the dead man before me, "If you attack me, my body will react, and kill you."

There is no hesitation in the movements of the patrons of the bar, I didn't want to kill them, but I couldn't stop myself. I slaughter them, blood stains the walls of the tavern, I sit back down on the barstool, _why must this always happen?_ I think to myself. The bartender comes back from the supply room with a bottle in hand, not noticing the carnage in his bar, he places it harshly in front of me.

"And here we have a bottle of the–" He stops as he notices the scene, his face fills with fear, and he backs away.

"You're not in any danger, but I'll take the whiskey and leave." I say, standing and taking the whiskey out of the tavern.

I drink the bottle in a dark alley just off the main street, vagrants, flee through the gates under false pretences almost all day. But I don't care about them, they don't matter, nothing matters, not after everything I'd done, _but why am I only now, starting to feel guilty?_ I think to myself. I wake up the next day laying on a couch, I sit up, my head is killing me, and the nausea it brutal, but I manage to keep down whatever was left in my stomach.

When I start to look around the room, I realize I'm in a brothel, or what's left of one, everything inside is dead. My clothes are stained with blood, bodies are strung up in the rafters _just more bodies for the kill count_, I think, _what the hell is wrong with me?_

"It is not what is wrong with you, it is what you have allowed yourself to become." Says a voice from somewhere in the room.

"Who are you?" I ask to the empty room, "And show yourself."

A figure appears before me, dressed in ornate dragon plate, his hair his black, and covers one of his eyes, he has a goatee. His right eye is white, not blind, but white, his other is a startling shade of blue both seem to the eyes of an old man. His cloak is blue and white, with a scale and a phoenix on it, I look up at him he almost looks like me, almost.

"You!" I yell, remembering the incident from over a year ago, "Who the hell are you!?"

"I am the Saviour." He says, the world seems to quiet down at the mention of his name, anticipating what he has to say, "And you've fallen a long way to get here."

"Tell me something I don't know." I mutter, looking for something alcoholic in the pile of bottles sitting by the couch.

"They're going to kill Doom." He says, crossing his arms, "They've been looking for him for a long time, and you made him reveal himself."

"He didn't have to use his god powers!" I yell angry with the man before me.

"He had an obligation to, because of the god he received his powers from." The Saviour answers, staring at me with anger in his eyes, "Ares was a war god, it was considered cowardly for him to not fight at full strength in all fights, and he wanted to demonstrate his power to you."

"Well what good did it do him?" I mumble, taking a swig out of a bottle that still had stuff left in it, "He's going to die now, so what does it matter to me?"

"Do you want to help him?" The Saviour asks me, staring at me with hard eyes.

"Why would I put my life on the line for someone I barely know?" I say, looking at him.

"Do you want to know him?" The Saviour asks, raising his right hand.

"I don't give a damn." I mutter, trying to forget it all.

"Then remember everything." The Saviour whispers as he touches his hand to my forehead.

A flood of memories rushes into my mind, none of them are mine, and it's a lot more than a few decades its centuries. I scream out in pain, and grip my head as the information is forced into it, tears fall from my eyes, as the information begins to assert itself chronologically. The Saviour retracts his hand, and lets me sit for a moment my mind comprehending its new memories.

"Help him, please." The Saviour says as he fades away.

The following day I look for leads as to where Doom is being held, I start at the bottom, with rumours spread by guards. There seemed to be no information regarding him, circulating, which meant either people were too scared to spill, or no one had been told anything interesting. I decide to go to Plexus, I was not looking forward to it, when I knock on the door, his adviser answers.

"Where is General Plexus?" I ask him.

"He left of for Taverley yesterday evening, something about some business in Keldagrim." He answers me.

"Have you heard anything about a special prisoner captured about 2 days ago?"

"No, I don't… well actually I overheard Plexus talking about someone who had the power of the gods, but I just dismissed it, I mean the gods were banished centuries ago right?" The assistant says, going back to his work.

"And where was this someone being sent to?" I ask him, clicking my claws off the walls.

"He said, he was sending him to Dragon Hold prison in Daemonheim." The assistant answers.

"I will allow you to live an additional day." I reply coldly, walking out of the room.

Daemonheim was the northernmost territory of The King's Death, populated by prisoners and exiles mostly, those who weren't prisoners and exiles were religious zealots worshipping the Saviour. The journey was long and dangerous, through the Wilderness, I took a horse from Edgeville, and made good time to Daemonheim. When I arrived the guard manning the checkpoint separating Daemonheim from the Wilderness was asleep, I killed him for disregarding his duties.

"Dragon Hold prison is on the other side of the mountain…" I mutter to myself as I begin the trek to the other side of Daemonheim.

"So are you going to go over the mountain, or around it?" says an image of the Saviour, appearing in the whirling snow.

"I'm going to go around, less effort that way." I reply, I had already accepted my own insanity, hallucinations were just the next part of it.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" The image says, "You've always wanted to see the ruins at the top of the mountain of Daemonheim."

"Don't you want me to save Doom?" I respond, annoyed with the image.

"Doom can survive a day or two longer, you've always wanted to scale this mountain, so why not do it?" The image says, vanishing in the wind.

"Fine you want me to scale the goddamn mountain, I'll scale the goddamn mountain!" I yell to the nothingness around me.

I begin climbing, I had always enjoyed rock climbing back in Burthorpe, but now it was different, I was doing it for a different reason. Daemonheim was an ancient place, created by the Dragonkin, and ruled over by the Mahjarrat Bilrach for many centuries. Now it was only a ruin, a shadow of what it had been, I had always wanted to see the ruins, ever since I was young, and thought the Saviour's memories did contain images of them, I wanted to see them with my own eyes.

I climbed, through the snow, over the rocks, I didn't take the clear cut path to the top, so no one would know I was coming. I reached the top, exhausted, bloodied from several falls, and the rough nature of the rocks, as well as starving. The images I had seen from the memories of the Saviour did the Dragonkin palace no justice, though it was a ruin, it was magnificent. It was massive, statues of dragons carved into the high fortifications, a massive doorframe of stone, with metal hinges indicating where massive doors once hung. Everything had a vague, spiked and vicious look to it, it was made of obsidian, it had an awe inspiring/fear inducing feel to it.

"There, there's Suiro." The Saviour said, appearing in my field of vision.

"I am not Suiro, my name is Chi." I reply.

"Well then, is Chi mystified by the sites of ancient history?" The Saviour responds.

"He is not…"

"Well then what is that childish sense of wonder I feel coming off of you?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter…" I reply, moving toward the massive towering fortress.

"We shall see." The Saviour says, vanishing into the whirling winds.

The inside of the abandoned structure was just as imposing as the outside, inside the floor was polished obsidian, massive 20 feet tall statues of Dragonkin seemed to stand guard over the place. I walked in cautiously, my claws at the ready, it was dark inside, safe light that streamed in through holes in the ceiling. I hear running footsteps off in the distance, too _light to be a man, a women?_ I think as I try to get a bead on where the sound is coming from, the inside of this place echoed.

As the footsteps come closer I realize that they're coming from behind me, I whip around to see an elven woman running, terrified of something behind her. She doesn't have time to stop, or hide her surprise in seeing me, I have just enough time to aim my claws away from her as she slams into me. We tumble to the ground in a heap, she struggles to try and get off of me, I push her off with the palm of my hand, and stand. The chamber rumbles as whatever is following her comes down the stairs, I ready my claws, then a thought strikes me _why am I defending someone?_ My job up to this point had been to kill people nearly indiscriminately, I hadn't really cared if I killed an ally, so why was I defending this woman?

The rumbling got louder until a lumbering man dressed in granite armour appeared, he had a massive granite maul hefted over his head. The moment he saw me, he roared and tried bringing the maul down on me, I managed to dodge, just barely. Using my claws, I sliced through the wooden shaft of the maul, he roared in anger, and began lunging at me with his fists, his attacks followed a predictable pattern. I lunge at him with my claws, expecting there to be a chink in the armour right at the side, my claws scratched against the granite surface of his armour. My claws on barely managed to scratch his armour, no chink, at least not in the usual place, my opponent struck me in the back with his elbow, sending me flying into the stares.

Making a sound that I assumed indicated he was happy in some manner, he began moving toward the girl. Shaking I manage to stand from the stares, at least 3 of my ribs are broken, my head feels like it's going to explode. The man in granite moved slowly, I used this to wrap my claws around his face/head/neck, he noticed me, and began flailing. I tightened my grip a little, and the blades sank a small bit into the man, he screamed in pain, the world was spinning. The girl on the ground stared at me, terrified, I looked at her, with the eyes that had seen so many deaths, her eyes were filled with tears, and she was shaking.

"Close your eyes…" I say to her.

In one swift motion I snap the neck of the man in granite, and he immediately crashes to the ground. The woman stared at me, a mix of fear, and relief filled her face, I kneeled by her, she was Elven, her ears pointed. For a moment I just stare at her, then I feel the world slip in blackness, I remember hitting the ground, then just nothing.


	3. Chapter 3, Liberation of a Warrior

Suiro, my name is Suiro, I think, I'm not quite sure anymore…

There was no dream, it was black, I sat in darkness, for an eternity, then light filled the dark world, and I looked down. The ground was made of crushed bones, _the bones of my victims_, I think to myself, _I have no right to live because of what I did to them_. I walked, the world seems endless, filled with bones, the guilt is crushing, I decide it's pointless to keep going forward, I lay down and close my eyes.

"Why can't I just die?" I mumble to myself.

"Why would you say something like that!?" a girl's voice yelled at me.

Startled I roused from my sleep, and opened my eyes to see a beautiful female Elf, she had blue eyes, and black hair, her skin was fair. She stared at me with intense angry eyes, I sat up and looked at her she had a small build, and seemed to be of a noble bloodline based on her clothes. I felt a jolt of pain in my head, her face went from angry to worried, and she made me lay back down.

"I don't need to lay down, I need to find Doom!" I yell as she struggles to hold me down.

"You have a concussion, and a few broken ribs you're not going anywhere!" she yells in response.

"I can deal with pain!" I yell, my head feels like it's going to explode.

"NO!" she screamed at me, I stare at her startled.

I stare at her, she's agitated to the point of tears I realize that I'm not wearing a shirt, and my rib cage is bandaged my gear is sitting behind her.

"Fine you want me to lay down and stop struggling fine, but first let me know one thing, what's your name?"

"My name is… my name is Cynthia, I was… I was part of an archaeological survey team, we were attacked by that man in granite." She almost seems like she doesn't quite know who she is.

"Alright, Cynthia, where are we? Obviously you've moved me further into the castle." I say to her.

"I moved you into one of the chambers on the second floor, its warmer here than it was where you passed out."

"As good as that is, I need to get to the eastern shore of Daemonheim, and I don't have time to waste, so unless you can heal me, I need to go." I say, "I need to rescue… a good friend."

"I can try." She says, reaching into a pouch on her belt, "I'm no good at healing spells, sometimes it makes it worse…"

"I can take that risk, the person I need to rescue is very important." I reply.

She pulls out some herbs from the pouch then draws a ritual circle on the floor, placing them at the points of a hexagon within the circle. She began chanting in Elfish, the circle began to glow, and the herbs swirled into the centre of the circle, melding into a sphere of glowing light. She put her hands near the sphere, then directed it to my head, initially there was pain, then the pain evaporated, and the world stopped spinning.

I bolted upright, she seemed startled, but didn't try to stop me, she seemed relieved that the spell had worked.

"Alright, I need to get to the east shore of Daemonheim, you wanna come with me?" I ask her.

"I'd like that." She says, pulling herself to her feet.

I walked over to my gear and put on the armour, then reversed my cloak from The King's Death, the symbols on it were beginning to make me nauseous. I secured the cloak, then looked down at the claws that I had used to inflict so much bloodshed, they were instruments of death. The image of the Saviour appeared leaning against the wall next to me, he dressed in the same armour he usually wore.

"Well?" He said, "Aren't you going to pick them up, they are yours after all."

"I'll try my luck without them." I reply to him, then realizing he's already vanished into thin air.

"You'll try your luck without what?" Cynthia asked, coming up next to me.

"These claws, I'm leaving them behind, I'll find another weapon." I answer, "Let's get going, I don't have much time."

Just before we could leave the room, the floor gave way, and we fell, both of us were knocked unconscious, my broken ribs forced me to consciousness pretty quickly. It appeared not only had the floor given way, but we had landed in some sort of dungeon, the air smelled of rotting, and the room was dark, safe light that streamed in from the hole in the ceiling. I tried to move, then realized I'd probably broken something else, my chest screamed in pain, and my left leg wasn't doing too well either.

"This is a real predicament you've ended up in." The Saviour said, as he materialized over my head.

"Then maybe you could help me a little!" I say, straining against the pain in my chest.

"I didn't want to, but these dungeons are an inhospitable place, I recommend lighting a torch as soon as you're able." The Saviour says, his right eye glowed for a brief second.

Suddenly my body experienced a feeling of pure ecstasy, I felt the temperature around my wounds heating up. The wounds began to heal, I could feel the bones moving and righting themselves under my skin, but it wasn't painful, it more like an orgasm, I blacked out. When I woke up, I was staring at the hole in the ceiling, and I felt amazing, Cynthia was next to me, barely clothed.

"What happened to your clothes?" I asked her as she began to stir.

"I don't know." She replies in a dreamy voice, trying to cuddle with me.

"Well put them back on, we need to get out of here, and fast." I say, getting up, and putting my own clothes back on.

With a look of displeasure she puts her clothes back on, I light a torch from the wall, then pry it free and examine our immediate surroundings. We'd fallen into some sort of dining hall, or at least it used to be, the table and chairs had long ago turned to dust. There was a door to the east, it was made of rotting wood, the chamber beyond was black, I approached it with caution.

A roar came from the other side of the door, and I took a step back, looking around the room, this appeared to be the only door. I knew we would have no chance against whatever was beyond that door without some weapons, I looked around the room for something, but there was nothing. Then I noticed something glinting from underneath the pile of rubble from the ceiling, I ran over then began digging through the stones. Right under where we had fallen was a pile of swords, in surprisingly good condition, I picked one up sure enough they seemed to be combat worthy. I walked back over to the door, new sword at the ready, the roar came again, accompanied by a rumbling, the door shook, and pieces of it began to fall off.

Cynthia hid behind me, I slowly, cautiously tapped the door it fell off its hitches beyond it was a dark chamber, now illuminated by the light of my torch. A beast charged us, but with the clanking of chains, stopped just before reaching the doorway, it snarled viciously at us. It was like a cross between a hellhound and a bull, with massive bull horns on its head, and vicious teeth like a hellhound. Its body looked mostly like a hellhound's, but with hooved feet instead of claws, its skin was a bloody red colour, and seemed to be almost too small for it spurts opened up all over its body spraying blood everywhere. Cynthia screamed with it came at us again, this time I was closer (I had been slowly stepping further into the room), its jaws snapped just inches away from my face.

The skin on its head broke like a zit, and blood sprayed all over my face, I stood there, breathing in and out, sword at my side. It reared, ran around the room and charged at us again, this time with the chain went taut, the wall began cracking. I stepped back as its jaws snapped closed where my head had been, I raised my sword, I didn't know what this creature was, but it was in our way.

"You're big…"I mused, stepping into the room, "Fought bigger though."

I lunged at the beast, it reared and attempted to block my blow with its hooves, I manoeuvred my sword to the right it cut a gash into the creature's side. Its hooves impacted my chest, I managed to get out of the way as they came down to the floor, turning on a dime I cut another gash into the creature's rear end. It screamed and ran forward, this time the chains were ripped free, and came smashing into me, I gasped as I was forced to the ground.

It towered over me, panting heavily, it reared to smash my head, when I heard an Elven song floating through the air. The creature seemed to hear it too, because it decided to smash its hooves into the ground next to my head instead of the ground with my head. It seemed to calm down, the song was rather tranquil, I picked up my sword, then pulled myself to my feet, and circled around behind it. Cynthia was the source of the song, she had her hands clasped at her chest, eyes closed, and she seemed to be glowing, as the creature neared her, she stretched out a hand, opening her eyes. I took the opportunity to stab my blade into the creature's heart, or at least where I estimated its heart was.

Blood sprayed from the wound, painting my clothes, and armour red, Cynthia stood mouth agape, eyes shocked for a moment before screaming. I pulled the sword free, and the beast slumped to the ground seemingly dead, Cynthia stood shaking staring at the horrific site of the corpse. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room and away from the beast, moving toward a door on the other side of the room. Just as I reached the door, the corpse made a popping noise, I whipped around sword in hand to see a lesser demon rising from the corpse. I pushed Cynthia through the door, and stood sword ready to fight, though I don't I'd be able to defeat a demon of any kind.

Before it could attack an arrow pierced its chest, it stumbled backward, before being cut to pieces by 2 warriors dressed in black armour.

"Friend of foe!?" I yelled across the room at them, apparently they hadn't noticed me.

"Depends…" One of them said, hefting a large axe onto his shoulder, "Are ye a member o' The King's Death?" He had a thick Fremenikk accent.

"I'm not a member of The King's Death!" I yelled at them, hoping they wouldn't recognize me.

"You're Chi the Bloodthirsty." Said the other guy who had cut the demon to pieces, he levelled twin rune sabres in my direction, "I've fought you before."

"I REFUSE TO BE CALLED BY THAT TITLE ANYMORE!" I yelled, ripping off my cape, and throwing it the ground.

The men who had killed the demon looked surprised, a third person approached from behind them, an archer, the one who had shot the demon.

"If you're not Chi the Bloodthirsty anymore, then who are you?" She had a thick Asgarnian accent.

"I…" I hesitated, I couldn't remember my name, "I don't know…"

"Then I have no business letting you live." She said, swiftly putting and arrow in my chest.

I collapsed to the ground, the air didn't seem to want to stay in my lungs, I couldn't breathe Cynthia began screaming from behind me. She kneeled by my side and began treating the wound, the arrow was barbed so that it couldn't be removed with causing even more damage to the person. The world faded to black, _damn it_, I thought to myself, _not this again_, I struggled to remain conscious without oxygen, but failed.

"Well this is an awful predicament you've gotten yourself into." The Saviour said, appearing from the darkness.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" I asked him, everything seemed grey.

"Well, you could reflect on your crimes, you know all those murders, and genocides you committed." The Saviour said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Doom said you could've pulled me out of it, why didn't you?"

"Because you needed to experience something awful to appreciate what peace would bring, the guilt you must feel, must be tearing you apart at this point." He replied.

"Am I dead?" I ask, feeling hot tears rolling down my face.

"No, they gave you the benefit of the doubt, and right now you're lying in a cave within the dungeons of Daemonheim." The Saviour answered.

"Then this is just a dream…" I whispered.

"Similar yes, but I've taken it over in order to talk to you, ask you what your decision is." The Saviour whispered in reply.

"My choice?"

"Which side do you take in the clan wars?" The Saviour said, the mood changing abruptly to one of seriousness, "Valhallius, or The King's Death?"

Suddenly I was more aware of my surroundings, like waking up, but I was still in the dream.

"I can't choose either right now, because I've only seen The King's Death in action." I responded.

"I beg to differ, the entire time you've been fighting you've been witnessing the deeds of Valhallius." The saviour said, waving his hand.

Suddenly my vision was bombarded with images of conflict zones I'd been in, in each figures bearing the cloak of Valhallius were working to help the less then fortunate.

"You've seen Valhallius in action, I've seen what they've done through your eyes." The Saviour said, "Neither option is the best, but which one stands the best chance of ending the bloodshed? The choice is yours."

My eyes opened to the half illuminated roof of the dungeon, I smelled something cooking, a meat of some sort. I sat up, my wound was gone, Cynthia was asleep next to me, I glanced over at the source of the illumination, a fire set up by the warrior who'd shot me earlier. 2 of them were sleeping, the third, the woman who'd shot me, stared at me, bow resting on her shoulder, she tossed me something.

It was a stale piece of bread, I felt my stomach gurgle at the sight of it, I began eating it without thinking, I had finished half before I even began to consider. I started to spit it out when the woman with the bow spoke up.

"It's not poisoned, I wouldn't heal you only to poison you dead." She said, her gaze was hard and suspicious.

"You're a member of Valhallius aren't you?" I asked her, slowly continuing to eat the bread.

"And you're a member of The King's Death." She said, holding up my cloak, torn from countless battles.

I stared angrily at the cloak, then at the woman, who had a silver cloak on, with gold trim, and a blue crown with wings emblazoned on it.

"I refuse to be a member of that clan anymore…" I said, in a low tone.

The woman sitting at the fire raised an eyebrow, I stood and walked over to her, she tensed my reputation was obviously far spread. I grabbed the cloak from her hand and threw it into the fire, the flames quickly engulfed it, the black and green burning up in the fiery orange. I stared as the final symbol on the cloak, a green crowned skull, burned to nothing but ash, then sat down next to the woman.

"I refuse to kill any more people, I'm done with fighting." For the first time in 2 years, my voice and thoughts felt like mine again, "My title shall no longer be 'The Bloodthirsty', my name with no longer be 'Chi'."

"If your name isn't Chi anymore, then what is it?" She asked, relaxing slightly.

"I don't deserve a name, I've done too much evil." I replied, "I can't have a name anymore, but you do have a name, what is it?"

"Laura, Laura Kane, third daughter of the king of Asgarnia." She answered swiftly.

"Third daughter of the king? If you're royalty then why are you out here fighting?"

"I couldn't stand being holed up in that damn castle any longer, I needed to get and do something, so I joined Valhallius I'm a captain now, leading my own squad." She replied enthusiastically.

The room was silent.

"Why did you shoot me?" I asked her, after a moment.

"I recognized you as Chi the Bloodthirsty, I had to take you out before you could hurt my squad, of course that was before that girl broke down crying" She said, pointing at Cynthia, "Chi the Bloodthirsty was notorious for killing woman and children while getting off on it, when I saw that she appeared to have feelings for you, I decided to risk it and save you.

"I don't know why she would have feelings for me, we only just met." I say, "I'm not exactly a lovable person."

"That is pretty obvious." Laura replies, "But you're definitely not Chi the Bloodthirsty anymore, you have a completely different aura to you, Chi was sadistic and psychopathic, you're gentle and kind, complete opposite of Chi."

"I don't even know what my name was before they forced me into The King's Death." I replied, stoking the fire with the tip of my scavenged sword.

"You had another name?" Laura says, sounding surprised.

"Yes, did you think I was always a member of The King's Death, I had a life before it you know?"

"I assumed to get someone that cruel, and with a complete disregard for human life, they'd have to raise a kid into it all. What did you do before joining The King's Death?" Laura asked, setting her bow down on the ground behind her.

"I think I was a blacksmith before they conscripted me." I replied, struggling to remember much before the bloodshed started.

"A blacksmith huh?" Laura said, looking me over.

"They did something to my head during their twisted initiation ritual, I can barely remember anything before it I can't even remember my old name."

"That's terrible." Laura replied, "Valhallius could probably track down your old identity if you want to go back to it."

"The town I came from was burned to the ground, I have nothing to go back to…" I responded, omitting the fact that I was partially responsible for it.

"Valhallius could always use another craftsmen in the forges, we could give you a place to work, food, shelter, good pay." Laura says, reaching over and placing another log into the fire.

"I have no right to go back to that kind of life, I've committed too many evil deeds to just go back to a peaceful life." I reply, shivering a little.

"Want a cloak?" Laura asked noticing me shiver.

"That would be nice." I replied.

She took off her cloak and gave it to me, then pulled one out of her pack, which was sitting by her next to the fire.

Shocked I didn't say anything for a moment, "I'm not a member of Valhallius, I have no right to wear this cloak." I said, glancing at Laura.

"Consider it a gift, now, before I trust you fully, I need to know your reason for being here in Daemonheim." She said, her face becoming serious.

"I'm looking to break a friend out of Dragon Hold prison on the eastern shore." I said, "Do you have any water?"

"Then it would appear that our interests align, we're looking to break out a high ranking officer of Valhallius out of that very same prison." She said, passing me a water skin.

"Wonderful, then my mission is no longer a suicidal one." I said smiling, "I'm going to get some rest, wake me if you want me to a watch."

I walked over to my bedroll, Cynthia was still curled up next to it, a blanket draped over her, I removed the cloak I have just been given, and draped over on top of the blanket. Then I laid down into my bedroll, and before I knew it, I was asleep, the world of hell in my recent history, and the uncertainty of the future faded from my concern, and my dream was happy. It felt like the hell I had been through was finally over, but I knew that was premature, I still needed to rescue Doom, and choose a side in the clan war

I was awoken the next morning (I assumed it was morning), by Cynthia, who was shaking me awake, apparently was a deep sleeper. I got up, and quickly found my armour, and put it on, I'd dispose of it as soon as the mission was complete, the sword I had scavenged had no sheath thus I was forced to keep in my hand. I put on the cloak that Laura had given last night, and began packing up the bedroll I had ben lent, I didn't get far before the warrior with the axe grabbed the back of my neck.

"Why're ye wearin a' Valhallan cloak?!" He half yelled into my ear.

"Your captain gave it to me, said I looked cold, ask her not me!" I responded, my wound from the night before screaming.

"Put him down Fergus, Mistress Laura did indeed gift her cloak to this mongrel." The man with the scimitars said, he spoke with a refined tone.

"Ah hell, fine' ye get off' this' time, but nex' time, watcher yer back." The man called Fergus said with displeasure as he released the back of my neck, "I want ta' get outta these goddam' tunnels a' soon a' possible."

"We are well aware Fergus, and we're nearing the connection to the prison." The man with the scimitars said, patting Fergus on the back, he turned to me, "I'm Thomas by the way, a gentleman by birth, a warrior by way of choice, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He said, bowing slightly.

"I don't have a name anymore, the ones I had are either lost or too blood-soaked to use anymore." I replied.

"Well that is unfortunate, however I am sure you will be given a new name post haste once we get back to Valhallian territory." Thomas said, picking up a pack, and handing it to me, "I'm sure you're well enough to carry your meagre belongings."

I took the back, and packed the bedroll I was using into it, then shoulder it, the rest of the party seemed ready to move out as well. Laura instructed us on how we would march, keeping the injured and inexperienced toward the centre, Fergus took at the rear, axe at the ready. The path we travelled down was long and dark, beginning from a door in the room we had slept in, and continuing to a more recent locked metal door.

"Here it is, beyond here is Dragon Hold prison's sewer system, they dump waste and corpses down here, the smell is supposedly horrendous." Laura said, pulling out her water skin, "Also I'm going to have to extinguish our torch, the decomposing corpses has presumably put off a lot of methane gas, which would ignite in the presence of flame."

"Then how are we supposed to see?" I asked without thinking.

"Wait and Listen." Thomas responded.

Laura pulled out an orb from her pack, then extinguished her torch, she poured out some water onto the orb, and it began to glow. She passed it to Fergus, then pulled another from her back, and did the same handing it to me this time, once the rest of us were equipped, she prepared to open the door. The moment the door opened a crack, the smell of methane filled the space around us, I gagged I'd never smelled anything quite so bad.

Laura continued to open the door, the moment she did, it revealed a field of corpses, in various stages of decomposition. Laura gulped back, Thomas stood, visibly shaking at the sight, Fergus was looking the other direction, guarding our rear, Cynthia vomited. I stared at the sight, reminded of the many times I'd produced sights like it in the past, the amount of guilt I felt at that moment was crushing. Laura took a step into the muck, sinking up to her thighs in it, she gestured for us to do the same her face was a steel mask of seriousness. Thomas followed quickly, I rubbed Cynthia's back, while prompting her to close her eyes and take a step forward.

In the end she did, the 'water' was disgusting, rotting body parts floated for as far as the eye could, I felt my stomach lurch, and the small food I had eaten for breakfast made a reappearance. To me it was significant, it showed me that my sense of right and wrong was returning, the sight before me was horrifying. After vomiting for several minutes I pushed forward with the party, this was a sewer system, it had openings to the ground floor of the prison. 10 minutes later a hole opened up in the ceiling, and a body was dumped into the muck, it had been horribly beaten, and was missing limbs. Cynthia fainted, I caught her just before she could fall into the sewage, propping her up, I splashed some water from my water skin on her face, she regained consciousness and I directed her away from the fresh body.

"Aye, it aint a' pleasant sight." Fergus said, reaching down to close the eyelids of the man.

"We're almost there, come on." Laura said, gesturing for us to push on.

We trudged through the sewage for another 20 minutes before coming to a stop, we faced a dead end. Several of the bricks had been removed to form a rudimentary ladder, it lead up to a steel grate, Laura gestured for Fergus to go up first. When he reached the top he carefully pried the grate free, then gestured for the rest of us to ascend, Cynthia went up before me, and I followed her, Laura and Thomas kept watch on the sewage tunnel.

As I poked my head up, I heard distant screams, we were inside Dragonhold prison, going up the rest of the way and looking around we seemed to be in an abandoned area of the structure. Laura came up behind me, followed by Thomas, we stood for a moment, before Fergus placed the grate back over the hole. Laura pulled an orb from her pack, then closed her eyes, focussing on the sphere, it began to glow then displayed a map of the prison. One of the rooms was marked in red, _probably where they're headed_, I thought. The prison was ancient, and had only recently been taken over by The King's Death, many of the various wings, and sections were still abandoned and waiting to be explored.

"Man formerly known as Chi!" Laura half-yelled to get my attention, I'd been lost in thought, "Where is your friend being held?"

"I don't know, all I know is that he's somewhere in this prison."

"Well' ats' a lot o' help." Fergus grumbled.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful, I was originally planning on barging in, and destroying everything in sight…" I stopped talking and stared at the members of my party, they were all staring at me.

"What happened to your eye?" Thomas asked after a tense moment.

"M-my eye?"

"It's glowing…" Cynthia said, seemingly mystified.

Suddenly a beam shot from it, and down the hallway, somehow I knew where it lead, and that it was about to give away our position.

"We need to move, now!" I said, readying my sword, and running in the direction of the beam.

I stopped at the end of the hallway and turned back,

"Go find that officer you're here to rescue, I'll get my friend we'll meet back here when we got them!" I yelled back, before turning and continuing to follow the beam of light.

The light weaved around several corners, then into a flight of stairs, I kept following it, as I ascended in the variable fortress, the screams got louder, and the smell of blood crept into my nose. I turned a sharp corner to face to face with a guard, a brutal looking thug, I caught him off guard and plunged my sword into his stomach. I didn't even stop moving, for some reason I felt that I needed to move quickly, I pulled the sword free as I leapt over his convulsing form.

The beam of light abruptly leapt straight up, I stared up, it seemed to be pointing the top level of a tower I had emerged into. Guards came running from all directions, I looked around for something to get up to the top of the tower. Then I saw it, a primitive lift system, I ran toward, ducking and weaving through the guards as they tried to block my path. I thrust forward with my sword, impaling the last guard between me and the lift, I landed on top of him on the lift. I rip my sword free and cut the second rope, the lift shot upward, I tightly gripped the rope attached to the lift, but the body of the guard, and my sword went flying back down to the floor of the tower.

Just before the lift reached the top of the tower, I jumped, and grabbed onto the edge of a platform, suspended by chains, at the near top of the tower. The lift reached the end of the line and shattered into splinters against the ceiling of the tower, I pulled myself up onto the platform. Panting heavily I looked around, suspended with chains through their bodies, were several people, they hung from the ceiling, instruments of torture were strewn on the ground of the platform. At the centre of the platform, suspended with red chains wrapped around his right arm, was Doom, he had chains sprouting from his body like the corpses that hung suspended from the roof. I approached him, his eyes shot open, and he began to struggle, trying to bite the air in front him.

Instinctively I dodged, and landed and blow to his stomach, he made a strained noise through gritted teeth.

"Sorry!" I quickly apologized.

Hearing my voice he stopped struggling.

"SUIRO!" He yelled, "Thank Guthix you're here, they're trying to siphon the power from my arm!"

"That's not my name anymore." I said in reply.

"Your name doesn't matter, listen, you need to cut the chains free, and pull them out of my body otherwise I won't be able to move!" He said, gesturing to a rune sword sitting on a nearby desk.

I picked them up, and swung it at the chains, cutting them free, Doom fell to the floor of the platform, only suspended by the chains around his right arm.

"Now pull the chains out of my body, then I'll deal with my arm." He said, struggling against the chains.

I did as he said, and grabbed one of the chains dangling from his chest, I pulled it didn't move, Doom made a noise, the pain was probably immense.

"Are you sure you want me to–"

"PULL IT FREE!" He yelled at me, his face filled with an intense mix of emotions that frightened me.

I did has he said, and began pulling even harder, after a moment it began to come free, and made a sickening sound as it came free of his body. After several moments, all the chains were out of his body, the colour had drained from his face, but the wounds were healing at an astonishing rate, I could see the tissues sealing themselves. After a moment he stood, and grabbed the chains around his right arm, then with a heave, pulled them loose from his arm, after which he was able to slip them off.

His body was bruised, bloody, and caked with soot and dirt, he rubbed his wrists, then looked at me.

"So you've figured out how to use the eye…" He said, gesturing my right eye.

"No, it just kinda did this on its own, it lead me to you." I answered.

"Interesting, well in any case we have no time to dawdle around here, we need to get going."

At the moment he said that, a second reached the platform, off stepped a familiar face, Cynthia, Doom immediately assumed a fighting stance. Surprised I waved to Cynthia, she didn't wave back she had an angry expression on her face her clothes were different as well. Instead of the simple archaeologist's clothes she had worn before, she now wore detailed gilded armour, and a black and green cloak, trimmed in gold, displaying the emblems of The King's Death.

I stopped waving when I noticed the attire, I slowly lowered my hand she continued to walk toward us.

"You to fire a beam of energy at her, now before she gets to us!" Doom whispered behind me.

Ignoring him I focused on Cynthia, "Cynthia, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Better yet, CHI, why are you helping him?" She said pointing at Doom behind me, her voice and manner were different than before.

"What do you mean, I came here to rescue him you already knew that." I replied, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Cynthia stood for a moment, staring at me, a look of disappointment on her face.

"I had high hopes for you Chi, I really did." She said walking right up to me, and placing a hand on my face.

"What do you mean?" I asked, brushing her hand away.

"She's Plexus Strap." Doom said, now standing further back from me.

The statement was only corroborated by Cynthia's dress and attire, and her mannerisms, the shock hit me like a brick wall. I took a small step back, trying to grasp the situation.

"Cynthia… is he right?" I asked slowly.

"He is, I am Plexus Strap, or I was..." She replies, looking away, "But I changed myself…"

"She's the same bastard that conscripted you!" Doom yelled at me, "Forced you to fight your friends!"

I felt hot tears coming from my eyes, I didn't know why, I had little to no attachment to Cynthia.

"Why am I crying?" I asked almost rhetorically.

"Virgin Elven women let off a hormone that expedites the process by which people form attachments, doubled when an Elf women is with child." Plexus/Cynthia replied.

"What do you mean with child?" I said, the shock of the situation made the world spin.

"When we fell into the cave, you experienced the god's power, but your mortal form could only cope with it by releasing massive amounts of endorphins, resulting in an intense orgasm…" She said, blushing slightly.

Doom seemed shocked by this as well.

"Then…?" I said, the rest of the though forming in my head.

It took a moment for my mind to make the full connection to what was going on, when it did, I spoke slowly, and with emotion.

"You… The person who destroyed my life, killed my friends, and turned me into a murderer…" I said, my voice low and intense, "Are now the mother of my child?"

I felt a hot burning sensation in my right eye, it seemed to glowing even brighter, Plexus/Cynthia approached me, then wrapped her arms around me.

"We'll raise the child together in the Misthalin countryside…" She said.

Energy began to leak from my right eye like tears, words would not come, instead I screamed, and at the moment I screamed, the power of the Saviour was unleashed. The power seemed to incinerate the world of my immediate sense, engulfing it all in a blue light flowing like water. Plexus/Cynthia screamed briefly before I could no longer hear her, the prison seemed to vanish from existence, I saw the team from Valhallius they had been fighting.

Laura had a man leaning on her, he was battered and bruised, but he was obviously the one they had come for, that was the last thing I saw, before the world faded to black.

I opened my eyes slowly, the air was cold and bit at my skin, I could hear water rushing against the shore, a fire crackling close to me. I sat up, I was on the shore of Daemonhiem, a massive plume of smoke rose from over the mountain, I looked around, Laura, Doom, Thomas, Fergus, and another man were all sitting by the fire. The mood was generally depressing, I got up, and approached the group, Laura saw me, and extended a bowl smiling.

"Welcome back to the world of the waking." She said as I took the bowl and sat on a rock near the fire.

They had made some kind of soup, it tasted good it felt like I hadn't eaten in days.

"Wha… what happened?" I asked, while taking spoonful's of the soup.

"I think that Doom would be the most qualified to explain that, as I'm not quite sure what happened." Laura replied.

"Suiro–"

"That's not my name anymore, I don't deserve a name." I said, cutting him off.

"Ye deserve a name laddy, a new' name, an' I got jus' the one." Fergus piped in, "Sterk, it's ma' language's word for' 'strong'."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement, Doom smiled and nodded, before laughing a little.

"That's a good name, Sterk, I think Ory would've liked it as well." Doom said, a nostalgic look crossing his face, there seemed to be a rumble in the distance as Doom said 'Ory', "Anyway, you unleashed the power from your right eye, and it basically destroyed the fortress, I used my arms power to teleport us to the other side of the island, as for Plexus… well we're not sure, there's no way to verify whether or not he-SHE died in the wave of energy, without going back to the other side of the island, and we don't have the energy to do that right now."

"I see…" I said, staring down at my soup, "How long was I out?"

"A bout 16 hours." Thomas answered, "A boat is currently on route to our current location, it will be here tomorrow. Thanks to that eye of yours, Valhallius has control of Daemonheim again."

"Good… Doom I've made my decision, I'm going to support Valhallius in this war…" I looked up from my soup, intense anger welling up in me, "And I'm going to destroy The King's Death."


	4. Chapter 4, Recovery

January 1st 1209 PC

The town before me, nestled between two mountains, used to be called Burthorpe, now it was but a charred graveyard. In the three years since I had left, conscripted by The King's Death, I had murdered thousands of people, starting with Burthorpe. The guilt I felt over the actions I'd been forced to commit slowly ate away at me, I'd liberated myself of The King's Death three months prior, and was still trying to full come to terms with what had happened.

"Were there any survivors?" I asked the Valhallan marine who had tailed me here.

"Yes, people on the outskirts of the town were able to get out before the fires got too severe." He replied.

"I want you to ask them about a man named Hans." I said, feeling my eyes tear up, again, "I can't seem to stop crying anymore."

"I will ask the survivors who were saved by Valhallius, and you have every right to cry, even I've cried at times during this war." He answers, pulling out a small book and making some notes.

"How much longer will I need an escort?" I asked him, staring in the direction of my old forge.

"As long as deemed by your psychologist." He replied, putting the book back in a pouch on his belt.

In the three months since I'd been with Valhallius, I'd spent one month in an intensive therapy facility, and the two months since I'd been tailed by a Valhallan marine Sergeant. Valhallius was in the process of retaking heavy territory losses to The King's Death, and the only reason I wasn't considered a POW was because I had value as the descendent. Despite desperately wanting to fight back against The King's Death, the military leadership of Valhallius still saw me as a threat, I didn't blame them.

I slowly walked down the hill stepping out onto familiar roads, strewn with bones, and broken tools that had been used to fight back. I walked for a few minutes, everything here was gone, but it seemed like only yesterday that I had been interacting with the people who used to live here. I came up to the site of my old forge, it had been before the day of my conscription, laying in front of it was a skeleton, dressed in rusted armour, and a cloak baring the symbols of The King's Death. He was the reason I had been conscripted in the first, I'd killed him in a fit of rage – my first kill – I closed my eyes and breathed slowly. Since the return of my morality gruesome sights like this were stomach churning to me, I stepped around the body, and walked into the lot of my old forge.

"Is this where you used to live?" The sergeant asked me, examining the charred property.

"Yes, I was a blacksmith, this was my family's forge, founded by my great-great-great-grandmother…" I choked back tears, "But it's nothing but a burnt piece of land now…"

"You should try blacksmithing again, it might help you get past the memories of the last few years." The sergeant suggested, examining the remains in front of the lot, "This person was an officer of The King's Death, must have been killed during the assault on Burthorpe, if the death was violent enough, we might be able to pull the soul back into this world and extract information from it."

"He died before the attack on Burthorpe." I said, my hands began shaking.

"Oh…?" The sergeant said, looking up from the corpse, "This is the man you strangled to death isn't it?"

While I was in the intensive care facility I gave a full recount of my experiences all the way back to my conscription, which included the strangulation of the officer who now lay before us as a skeleton.

"It is, no one must have touched the body after the conscription order they were probably too scared…" My right hand began to shake even more violently, I grabbed it with my other hand to steady it then I realized that my whole body was shaking.

"Maybe we should get back to the citadel, I think you need another session with Doctor Sooruk." The sergeant said, pulling 2 teleport tablets from a pouch on his belt.

I took one and smashed it against the ground, the spell activated instantly, the world was engulfed in a blue fire. When is dissipated I was standing the courtyard of the citadel of Valhallius, a massive floating fortress high in the sky over the Fremennik isles. The anxiety attack that had begun while I was standing in Burthorpe suddenly spiked and the rune that had been imprinted on the back of my neck knocked me unconscious.

"Welcome back, come for another therapy session?" The Saviour said.

I had entered a subconscious dream world projected by the remnant soul of the Saviour. The 'room' was a comfortably lit study, I could see a globe at the corner of the room, the windows were black, and I was laying on a couch. I sat up, and looked at him, he was dressed differently from the last time I had seen him, now he wore a flowing black robe of silk, and had a long white beard.

"What are you this time?" I asked him.

"Oh this? I just trying on old outfit, that's all." He answered, casually stroking his beard.

"Could you make it daytime? The black windows are rather depressing." I said, pointing at one of the windows.

"Oh that's no problem at all, though I could remove them all together if you prefer…" The Saviour said, raising a hand.

"Just make it daytime."

"Very well." He flicked his hand and suddenly daylight streamed in from the windows, "So what caused you to have an attack this time?"

"I visited Burthorpe." I said, laying back down on the couch.

The Saviour was silent for a moment before answering.

"I told you that was a bad idea Suiro." He said after a long moment.

"My name isn't Suiro anymore, that name was stripped from me 3 years ago." I said angrily.

"Right, what was it…? Sterk…?" The Saviour said, making notes on his pad of paper.

"Yes, I told you last time I had an attack." I replied, anger dissipating.

"Have you made any other notable progress in managing your PTSD?" The Saviour asked, trying to move on.

"No, it's gotten worse in fact." I said, putting my hands over my face "Can't you just make this go away? You did it before in Daemonheim."

"What I did in Daemonheim was break the personality charm that had already been placed on you." The Saviour answered.

"What the hell is a personality charm?" I asked, confused.

"Sigh, I should've explained them to you in Daemonheim… a personality charm is a way of quickly altering a person's personality to its exact opposite, it was developed by a member of The Reapers for use on violent criminals, however the texts regarding it went missing after the first cataclysm, I had assumed them lost." The Saviour said, standing from his chair, and walking over to one of the bookshelves, "I'll lend you a book about it, detailing years 21-27 of The Reapers[MG1] , you may find it rather interesting."

"So all you did was break a curse on me?"

"Essentially, unfortunately I can do nothing about the PTSD from the events that happened to you while under the influence of the charm." The Saviour said, tossing me a book.

"What would you recommend to help ease it?" I asked, catching the book.

"I would recommend doing something familiar, something you did prior to the casting of the charm." The Saviour said, taking another book off the shelf and examining it, "Perhaps you should try blacksmithing again."

My eyes shot open, and for a brief moment my right eye burned with power, and the blanket of the bed I had been laying in was transmuted into a book titled 'Years 21-27 of The Reapers'. I placed it on the nightstand next to my bed, and sat up, it was nighttime, and the stars were out, they were beautiful from the citadel, no stars to obstruct them. I got up and walked over to the window, the night sky seemed untouched by the events occurring below, not even clouds blocked the view from the citadel.

The next day I went to the forges in the citadel, a section of the forge was cleared for me under a medical provision from my psychologist. I picked up an ingot, it was a familiar sensation, but it felt like something that I had almost forgotten, I tossed into the forge to heat it up. I pulled it out with a pair of tongs when it began to glow, I placed it on an anvil, then I struck it with a hammer, the sound rang out. The first few hits I was fine, then I began to sweat, _I must not be used to this kind of activity_, I thought to myself, striking the hot ingot a few more times. My ears began to ring, the sounds of battle filled my mind, my hands began to shake, the ingot fell to the floor, I struck the anvil.

I didn't feel the rune on the back of my neck activate, but apparently it did.

"Doc, what the hell is wrong with me?" I asked my psychologists, Doctor Sooruk.

"You're suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and we are trying to help you." Dr. Sooruk said, her Elven voice laced with calming magic.

"But why would blacksmithing do that? It's not a stressful activity…" I said.

"It would appear that your mind has attached the sound of metal striking metal to the idea that you're in danger." Dr. Sooruk said, taking down some notes, "Although, I find it odd that blacksmithing would trigger an attack, it is something that you did before your trauma, and it was something you did your whole life, it makes very little sense for it to be a source of anxiety even after everything you went through."

"It seems that there is nothing normal about me these days…" I said, turning my head to look at Dr. Sooruk.

She was wearing a simple skirt that came down to her knees, the green fabric seemed to be laced with gold. Her eyes were a cold blue, and seem to dissect your very soul, her hair was silver, and cut short, her ears ever so slightly pointed. I found myself staring at her, not out of lust, but out of wonder, she noticed, and gave me an annoyed look.

"Maybe you should try an activity that you've never done before, have you consider archery?" She said, crossing her legs.

"I don't that would be good..." I said, remembering the battle of Catherby, I'd been stationed within earshot of an archer's nest.

"Then what about magic?" Dr. Sooruk said, putting her clipboard down.

"I've never done magic before… don't you have to have an aptitude for it?" I asked, turning my head to the ceiling.

"No, anyone can learn the basics, whether or not you have an aptitude doesn't matter." Dr. Sooruk replied.

"I'll try it, anything to help this goddamn PTSD." I said, putting my hands over my face, I was sweating.

"I'll see what I can do." Dr. Sooruk said, smiling.

The next day I woke to Doom standing over me, apparently he was now trusted enough to be allowed to roam the compound. I got up and walked with him for a while without saying anything, he was dressed in a green and black tunic, I wore the standard medical robes for patients. We came up to a pond, at the center a small stone golem regulated the magic in the citadel, essentially keeping it afloat.

"SO, have you made any progress with your PTSD?" Doom asked, sitting down at the edge of the pool.

"I'm going to try magic today." I replied, opting to remain standing, I noticed an armoured figure moving toward us, "More importantly do they trust you? They're still quite suspicious of me."

"They've always trusted me, I just had to show them this." Doom pulled an amulet out of his pouch, it had a red silver and gold eight pointed star over a red circle on it, "This is a Reaper's amulet, proof of service to The Reapers, legends are told about those who hold these amulets, and when they pass the magical scrutiny that invariably comes with the notion that one could be from such an ancient clan, it gives you access to a whole bunch of stuff. I was going to give you The Saviour's, however things went too quickly back in Burthorpe and I was unable to get it to you."

"The why not give it to me now?" I asked, "And if they trust you, then could you do something about my restricted movement?"

"No, and no, if I were to give you the amulet right now it would look suspicious, and I sense neither of us want any more suspicion levelled against us than we already have. And they TRUST me, it doesn't mean I have influence over them." Doom answered, spinning the amulet around on his finger.

"Is there anything you can do for me right now?"

"Yes. You said you're going to try magic right? Well then take this." He stopped spinning the amulet, and raised his hand, a small vortex opened up on it, and a staff emerged, "This is called a _Mindspike_, it's something that was developed by the druids in Taverley, I imagine not many still exist." He tossed it to me, "Take it, it should help you a lot with casting your spells."

"Thanks…"

Later that day I met with one of Valhallius' mages, he gave a rundown of the basics, then some instruction with some basic combat magic. The _Mindspike_ eliminated the need for runes, and impressed the other mages, they almost confiscated it for study. By the time the sun went down I'd gotten the hang of _Wind Strike_, magic was a lot easier than I had expected, according to the mage that instructed me, I had an aptitude for it.

"So, how was magic? Any flashbacks, anxiety…?" Dr. Sooruk said, flipping through some pages on her clipboard.

"No, in fact I quite enjoyed it, I think I'm going to pursue it more thoroughly moving forward." I answered, a smile daring to show itself on my face.

"Good, I think it would be good for you to pursue something like magic, you'll be able to contribute to the war effort, without unnecessary stress to yourself." Dr. Sooruk said, putting her clipboard down, "You've been in the care of Valhallius for 3 and a half months now, and the high council would like to speak with you now that you've recovered somewhat."

"I've got a few things I'd like to ask them, when do they want to meet?"

"Right now, I just wanted to make sure you were up to it, I'll direct you to the council chamber." Dr. Sooruk said, standing, and directing me to follow.

She directed me across the citadel, to a massive almost fortress like building, the main door was guarded by Valhallan marines. The winged crown of Valhallius flew from banners, and adorned the tabards of the guards that manned the ramparts. Dr. Sooruk muttered some words to the marine at the door, and he opened the door for her, I followed her into the building.

The inside was equally as impressive as the outside, torches lit the stone hallway and pictures of what appeared to be past leaders of Valhallius adorned the walls. Dr. Sooruk led me through to a massive wooden door, the sign on the door read 'High Council chamber'. She entered, and I followed, the room had a circular table surrounding a blue globe of energy at its centre, at the table sat a group of people, each wearing a different cape. Dr. Sooruk bowed to the assembled men, then walked out the door, leaving me facing what I guessed to be the highest ranking members of Valhallius. The door boomed as it shut behind me, the man sitting the furthest from me gestured to a chair in front of me at the table.

I sat down in the chair, the man sitting on the other side of the table gestured with his hand and a package of papers emerged from the globe of energy at the center of the room, it landed in front of me.

"Sterk, welcome, I do hope you're doing better than when we welcomed you to Valhallius." He said, smiling, he looked about 40.

"Thanks, what's this?" I asked, holding up the package of papers.

"It's a draft of a plan we hope to implement immediately." He answered.

I flipped through the package, skimming the information in it, it appeared to be a plan to utilize my ancestry to legitimize total victory for Valhallius.

"I'm not going to cooperate with this." I said, tossing the papers back onto the table, they scattered over the side and onto the floor.

The man on the other side of the table smiled.

"Well you see, it's not really your decision, I should have you imprisoned for what you've done, however you have value as the descendent, and I'm not going to waste that if I can help it." He said, "You'll either go along with our plan, or we'll imprison you for the remainder of your pitiful life."

He had me in a difficult position, what he was saying was essentially right, no one would argue with him if he had me imprisoned.

"Ok, let's say I go along with this plan of yours…" I said, looking around the table, "What would you make me do first?"

"The first step of this plan is to marry you to the current heir of Valhallius." The man said, gesturing with his hand, an image of the princess appeared in the sphere of energy, "In order to do that however, we will need to fabricate a descent for you, and create a new identity–"

"Why would you have to do that?" I asked, cutting him off.

The man's eye twitched slightly.

"We need to, because no one will accept the marrying of a former member of an enemy clan to a member of Valhallius' royal family."

"I was not a member of that clan by choice, AND my status as the descendent of The Saviour should be more than sufficient for the people of Valhallius." I said, crossing my arms.

"Perhaps, I do not wish to risk it however." The man said, smile fading, "We can discuss the details at a later date, right now I just need to know that you're onboard with it."

"I'm not saying no." I replied.

"Good." The man said, a smile returning to his lips.

"If that's all you wanted to talk to me about, I see no reason to keep sitting here." I said, standing to leave.

"By all means." The man said, waving his hand.

I returned to my quarters and laid down on the bed, _this clan is better than The King's Death_, I thought to myself, before I knew it I was asleep. In my dream I seemed to be floating above Gielinor, I was fighting someone, or something, massive bolts of energy were thrown off when our weapons made contact. I could feel my right eye burning, I saw Doom rocket into the thing I was fighting, he was armed with a pair of blue claws.

"Oryx! I'll pin him to the ground, use the Holy Driver to destroy him!" He yelled, struggling against the force of the monster he was fighting, his armour rune by the looks of it, began to crack.

The thing we were fighting was like a black shade, its eyes glowed red, and it radiated unholy energy. Doom drove the monster to the ground, when it struck the force exerted by Doom caused a massive crater at the site of the impact. I aligned myself directly above them, then began channeling energy in my right eye, the pain was almost too much for a dream, but then this wasn't a dream, it was a memory.

I unleashed the stored energy, a beam of pure white energy struck Doom and the creature, a blood curdling roar came from the creature. Doom came hurdling out of the pillar of white light coming from my eye, his body was singed and smoking, his armour wrecked beyond repair. Then I lost control of the energy, and it shot in the 4 cardinal directions, carving massive trenches, and incinerating everything in its path. I tried to regain control, and stop the destruction but I only succeeded in momentarily stopped the flow of energy. I lost control a moment later and another beam of energy struck the ground, carving new trenches in the ground, this time the energy stopped, and my right eye slammed shut, throbbing from the prolonged usage.

I felt myself fall to the ground, Doom caught me, and helped me stand the battle had obviously been hard won. We moved to the center of the new carved eight pointed star, what had obviously been the creature was now but a pile of bones. I collapsed to the ground, then looked at the massive trenches that had been carved into the ground.

"Doom, how far do you think these trenches reach?" I asked him.

"At least to Varrock, maybe further…" He replied, sitting down on the edge of one of the trenches.

"You know…" I began.

"What?"

"It's nothing, just a thought…" I said, shaking my head.

"Out with it." He replied, levelling a battered claw at me.

"Well, you know how you were looking for a new symbol for The Reapers, well… What if we used an eight pointed star?" I said.

"heh, I like It, kinda like a compass rose, I guess our influence does extend pretty far…" Doom said, looking up at the sky.

"Then it's settled, from now on The Reapers will be represented with a compass rose."

A knock at the door woke me, the sun was setting, and the light inside my room was orange, I got up, and walked over to the door. I opened it to come face to face with a member of the high council, he had a black robe on, his amulet displayed the symbol of Valhallius, his blue and white cloak displayed a set of scales and a winged crown. He had a rather angry look on his face, he pushed past me, and into my room, he looked around, then pulled out an orb and tossed it into the air, it circled the room before glowing green.

"Now we can talk." He said, sitting down on my bed, "I am Aethenous, current leader of The Loyal Elite."

"Leader? What the hell is The Loyal Elite doing here, I thought this was Valhallius." I said, surprised and confused.

"Valhallius is a coalition of many different clans fighting under one banner, the remainder of The Loyal Elite became a part of it when they pushed The King's Death back from Kandarin, under the current arrangement we are allowed to maintain our traditions in exchange for swearing fealty to the Emperor of Valhallius, hence why my cape bears the crest of Valhallius." Aethenous said, gesturing to his cloak.

"Interesting, that would explain how Valhallius was able to make such massive territory gains practically overnight."

"Indeed, but moving on to the reason why I came here, the council is planning on using you to remove the power of the royal family." Aethenous said, the tone of his voice deadly serious.

"I figured they were planning on using me, I think I'm alright with it though, at least this time I won't be forced to fight." I said, a feeling of anger welling up in my stomach.

"You can't really be ok with that, they'd be using you to destroy the monarchy of the United Fremennik Tribes, imagine the devastation that could have on the political landscape of Valhallius." Aethenous said, his face showed fear and panic.

"I don't care about the political situation of Valhallius, I just want this damn conflict to end." I replied.

Aethenous looked depressed, he stood and walked over to the door,

"If you change your mind, my chambers can be easily found in the south garrison complex." Aethenous said, walking out of my room.

I closed the door behind him, and laid back down on my bed, I didn't care if they were going to use me, I just wanted the flashbacks to end. That night I couldn't sleep, just as I caught up to go the mess area of the medical facility I heard voices just outside my room. I crept to the door, and placed my ear against the wood, listening, they were talking about something I could barely make out what they were saying.

"…Descendent belongs to The King's Death…We will have him again!"

"I understand, but listen, if we use him now, we will be able to destroy the royal family of the Fremennik isles…"

"How would you use him better than we would!?"

"Because I seem to be the only one of us with a brain in his head!"

One of them stormed off loudly, the other one let out a sigh and walked down the hallway, when I was sure the coast was clear, I opened my door. The hallway was deserted, moonlight streamed in from the window, I closed the door, _what was The King's Death doing here?_ My mind reeled from what I'd just heard, they were going to use me as a pawn to destroy Valhallius.

I burst through the door, and raced down the dimly lit corridors, I needed to talk to Aethenous. The medical garrison was on the Northern part of the citadel, Aethenous was situated in the southern garrison. I raced across the dark fields and stone pathways of the citadel, several guards ran after me, I ignored them, my situation was just serious enough that I could deal with the punishment later. I crossed onto the center section of the citadel, several guards attempted to cut me off, I felt my eye activate, and I leaped over them, and kept running. As I crossed onto the southern section of the citadel alarm bells started going off, I began to panic, my legs felt like lead, in my desperation I felt my eye activate again.

This time it teleported me to Aethenous, I popped into a room, the only light streamed in from the window because of the full moon. Inside the room there were three men, one of them lay on the floor, blood streaming from a wound on his neck. The other two stood over him, one of them was dressed in a green and black cape, he had a set of wicked claws on his hands, the other wore a black cloth mask, and a black robe and cloak. The man on the floor was Aethenous, seeing a member of The King's Death standing over him pushed me into panic mode, I figured I had about 10 seconds before the guards got here. I felt the rune on the back of my neck begin to activate, I strained against it to cast a simple spell, to my surprise it went off, the air bolt flew across the room aimed at the man from The King's Death.

The other man was ever so slightly in the way of the bolt, it cut a slash across his right cheek, blood spilled from the wound. The other man dodged, but the bolt caught part of his cape, shredding a piece off of it, he began to counterattack when the other man stopped him. The man in black gestured to the window, The King's Death assassin seemed to understand, both of them jumped out the window. I collapsed next to Aethenous, the adrenaline in my system seemed to be neutralizing the rune on my neck, Aethenous spurted blood from his mouth as he tried to speak. I struggled to bring my ear closer so I could hear him, I felt myself begin to succumb to the rune I just barely managed to hear what he had to say before losing consciousness.

* * *

><p>[MG1]Possible entry for the consolidated lore timeline…?<p>


	5. Chapter 5, Conspiracy part 1

I woke up in a holding cell, my hands were shackled, an eye patch covered my right eye, I sat up on the cold hard floor. The cell I was in had poor drainage, and smelled like human waste, as I got my bearings I heard loud footsteps. Doom walked out in front of the cell, I couldn't tell if he was disappointed or angry at me.

"What the hell did you do?" He said in a low voice.

"I ran across the compound to speak with Aethenous." I said calmly.

"They're accusing you of murder!" Doom yelled, pointing down the hallway.

"I heard some people talking outside my door, one of them was from The King's Death they were talking about using me to destroy Valhallius' royal family. I panicked, and decided I needed to tell Aethenous, so I ran across the citadel, his throat had already been slashed when I entered his room." I said, trying to remain calm.

"And you think The King's Death did it?"

"I'm positive they did it, one of their assassins was in the room." I said, recalling the scene from the room.

Doom sighed and looked up, it looked like he was trying hard to believe me the story was pretty outrageous.

"I believe you, but the high council doesn't, they want to keep you imprisoned like this while they decide how to execute you." Doom said, anger filling his face, "If I did a memory probe, will the memory prove your innocence?"

"YES!" I yelled, jumping to the bars of the cell.

"Alright, it takes a lot of energy but I will be able to record the memories to an orb which I will then show the council." Doom said raising his now glowing right arm.

He placed his right hand on my head, then closed his eyes, I felt a searing pain on the top of my head that quickly evolved into a splitting headache. Just when I thought I would pass out, he pulled his hand from my head, I collapsed to my knees in the filth, then looking up, Doom was channelling the energy into a sphere then suddenly it took on solid form and dropped into his hand. He opened his eyes, then stared at the orb, he placed it in a pouch on his belt just as the guards came rushing over.

"I just finished what I came here to do." He said as the guard began ushering him away.

I walked over to the other side of my cell, then collapsed to the ground, suddenly I was exhausted, I laid down on what passed for a bed in this sewer, and fell asleep.

I was awoken the next day by the guards pulling me, violently, to my feet, it took me a moment to get my bearings. When I did I walked out of the cell, and focused on the robed figure carrying a scroll, he handed me the scroll, and directed me to follow him. He led me up to the high council chamber, inside the members were assembled, minus Aethenous, I sat in a chair at the round table.

"I'm glad you could make it Sterk." The man opposite me at the table said.

"I'm glad you decided to let me out of that filthy cell." I replied.

"Yes well, a memory probe is pretty conclusive evidence, once we confirmed it, we had just cause to release you." He said, gesturing with his hand at me.

"So why did you ask me here?" I said, staring intently at the smiling man on the other side of the round table.

"We're moving ahead with our plans, you're to be married to the princess in 3 days, right now we're going to go over your 'origin' story, and lay out a plan to establish you as a credible noble." The man replied, his smiling hiding a malicious intent.

As I stared at the man who had lead the discussion thus far, and then I noticed something, running across his right cheek was a cut. A chill ran down my spine as I realized who that man in the black robe had been, I was staring at him, he was the man in charge of the high council. I sat silent as he read off the plan the council had laid out, trying to hide my anger.

Later that day they lead me to a courtyard, the garden of the royal heir, it was a place where visiting nobles would be brought to speak casually with the Emperor. I walked into the wide open air garden, the air smelled of flowers, and was filled with the sound of chirping birds, the gentle rush of water. Sitting at an elegant table with a cup of tea was a women, dressed in an elegant white afternoon dress, her long silver hair hung loosely flowing in the wind. Her skin was pale, and her eyes an icy blue, she was probably about as old as I was, though her composure made her seem older. I felt a hand push me forward, apparently I had been standing stock still under the entranceway she looked up at me with a curiosity in her eyes.

As I approached she stared at me with a look that slowly turned to disgust, when I reached her table she had her eyes closed. The way she held her head, seemed to say, 'I am above you, and you will respect me'. Her posture was perfect, and I couldn't find the words

"Why have you brought this mongrel to my family's best garden?" She said, her voice was a beautiful tone in my war scarred ears.

Shocked out of my reverence I responded with heavy sarcasm; "This mongrel is being married to you in 3 days."

The look on her face was a mix of disgust and anger, I couldn't tell if she was angry I had just sat down, or the fact she was being married against her will, probably the latter.

"One as beautiful as you shouldn't make such faces, it's beneath you." I said, trying to sound romantic, like in the old novels I used to read.

"What would you know how I should act, or what face I should make?" She said, opening her eyes and staring daggers at me.

"Alright, I don't." I said, throwing my hands up in surrender, "it just doesn't seem to fit you."

At that moment I realized that my face was turning red, I could feel it, as well as something else a bit further down…

"Anyway, moving on, I don't really want to marry you, but if I don't they're going to throw me in a filthy cell for the rest of my life." I said, trying to change the subject.

"I'm not particularly happy about being forced to marry someone either, but they told me that you would have class, and that you were a noble from another land." She said, sipping her tea, "You do not appear to be either refined in anyway, nor of a noble descent, and the eye patch makes you look like a bloody pirate."

"Then allow me to remove the eye patch, they put it on me because of my eye…" I said as I removed the eye patch from my right eye.

"That's a tad bit better, however your manners are atrocious, and your dress is beyond unruly." She said, picking up a biscuit form a nearby plate.

"Listen, we're gonna have to spend at least the next few years together, so I think we should try and get along, doesn't have to be romantic, just needs to look romantic." I said, reaching over and picking up a biscuit, and popping it in my mouth.

The princess took a moment before answering, as though deeply surprised I had said something intelligible.

"I think that would be acceptable, considering that we do not appear to have much say in the matter." She said, nibbling on her biscuit, "However, you will need some refining, I will have the royal stylists have a look at you this evening."

"Sounds fine." I responded, popping another biscuit in my mouth, "These things are good, why aren't they bigger?"

The princess let out a sigh, her face filled with less disgust, more annoyance than before I sat down.

"They're not supposed to be filling." She responded sipping her tea.

"Then what's the point?" I said, grabbing a fistful.

"I see we have a lot to work on…" She said, sighing heavily.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting measured by a royal tailor, the next day they bathed me, and washed me thoroughly.

Now I was standing on a small pedestal while the tailor walked around looking at my naked – but clean – body.

"Is that everything then?" I asked the woman who was looking me over.

"Yes, just about." She answered, gesturing for her aid to go get something.

"Then can I go?" I asked, "It's getting a bit breezy in here…"

"Oh lord, I almost forgot! Please put on these." She said handing me some fancy looking robes.

I did as she asked and put the robe on, she delicately tied the sash of the silken robe. Just as she finished, the princess came into the room lead by the tailor's aid. She was dressed in a simple ice blue dress, and had her hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Well, he certainly looks better than he did earlier, the stench is certainly gone." She said, walking around me.

"I am within earshot you know, I can hear what you are saying." I responded.

"I know, I want you to hear." The princess replied, "Now that we have your clothing situation sorted out, we must do something about that head of hair, even washed it is an absolute mess."

"Well pardon me, but when you're fighting a war, your hair isn't high on your priority list." I said sarcastically.

"Yes well, you are royalty now, as painful as that is for me to admit." She said, her face masking barely contained disdain, "But I suppose a break is in order."

I went back to my quarters, the sun was going down, and a cold breeze blew through the citadel. What the hell was I doing here? Why was I being married off to one of the highest ranking nobles in Valhallius when less than half a year ago I was slaughtering them left and right?

"That's a very good question, I'd be curious to know the answer." The saviour said, as he materialized behind me.

"They're up to something, and they're planning to use me to accomplish it." I said, partly guessing.

"Indeed." The Saviour replied.

"So I should just go along with it for now?"

"Based on what I've observed through your eye, they are in league with the King's Death, and bartering an end to the war, counter to what you've decided." The Saviour said, his voice almost filled with amusement, "The King's Death has realized that they have lost, and is trying to capitalize now, while it still can, however, they will be easily outmanoeuvred by you."

"Then the marriage is a part of it, they're planning on using me while I've got control of Valhallius." I replied, turning to face the mirage.

"They most likely believe that you can be controlled using the same charm they placed on you in the beginning." The Saviour said, his smile widening into laughter.

"It's not funny!" I yelled at him.

"No, no, you misunderstand, they're pitiful attempts to manipulate one with my power, it's… It's absolutely laughable!"

"Well I take it quite seriously thank you very much."

"Heh heh… Listen, we already know the corruption goes all the way to the top, the man with the cut on his face, we know for sure that he's involved with The King's Death." The Saviour replied, his laughter ceasing, "The high council of Valhallius was only established because the king is too old to rule absolute anymore, thus words that come from the ruler of Valhallius take precedence over the word of the council hence it would be no trouble at all to dismantle the council once you've married that princess."

"Then I've got nothing to worry about then."

I laid down in my bed, the image of the saviour vanished, and a jolt of pain ran through my right eye, I winced, then rubbed the area around my eye. _This will all be over soon_ I thought, _just a few more days_…

The events of the day had taxed him greatly, this one, the descendent, was a handful, _even harder to keep out of our business_ the man thought. The corridor was black, the darkness creeped from all sides, and a lesser person would've fled, but not him, he was a man of power. The cut on his face seemed to burn, the black energies of the entity ahead were slowing coiling around him, looking for a way in.

The man reached for his sword, drawing it with a swift motion, the glinting blue runed surface made the coils of black energy recede. A low hiss came from the chamber up ahead, he walked swiftly forward, coming out in the chamber of a former black dragon, long dead, it's spirit fused with that of a mortal man. The entity ahead called itself _Sliske_, named after a long ago banished god, it wore darkness like a cloak, thick smoke like energy rolled off its body. Its eyes were green, and saw through the souls of lesser men, but this man, the one now facing this demon, was not a lesser man. Breathing out the man knelt before the demon, _Sliske_ opened his eyes, the green light illuminating the room with a sickly glow.

_"__Oedipussss, you've returned to me, what newssss of the desssscendant?"_ Sliske spoke, his voice a whisper in the mind.

"The descendant is as strong as we predicted, however his mind is sharper than we expected, for a man who spent his days labouring in a forge, he has a brilliant mind." Oedipus said, his head bowed before the demon.

_"__Bah, you did not expect him to be intelligent, but he is desssscended from the Ssssaviour, it wasss one of the thingssss you should've been mossst certain of."_ Sliske spat at Oedipus.

"My apologies, Lord _Sliske_, I am not versed in the legends as you are." Oedipus replied, a slight shiver running down his spine.

_"__Your fear is vissssible, I could posssesssss you now, and finisssshhhh thisssss…"_ Sliske spoke, standing from his throne of bones.

"My Lord, that is not necessary, the job will be done to schedule." Oedipus said, his muscles beginning to quiver, before the demon.

_"__Be ssssure that it issss, or I will have to take matterssss into my own clawsss…"_ Sliske spoke, sitting back on his throne.

I woke with a chill running down my spine, as though something bad was going to happen soon, it wasn't the first time this week. I sat up, I was drenched with sweat. I reached for the night robe that now hung by my bed, then got up and slipped into some slippers to go for a walk.

As far as I could gather it was early morning, the sun had not risen yet, but the citadel was a buzz of activity. Soldiers ran to and fro, armoured in brand new armour, equipped with the very best Valhallius could offer, battle axes and large circular shields made of various metals. I watched as the heavily armoured companies marched toward the portal, preparing to deploy to various strategic points in Gielinor. I glanced around looking for a commander to confer with, to get an idea of what was going on, I saw the councilman I had dealt with over the last few weeks standing with his arms behind his back, a sinister smile on his face. I walked aggressively toward him, his cheek was still covered with a dressing.

"What is going on?" I asked him, trying to mask my anger.

"The King's Death is making a move, we are mobilising our reserve forces to bolster our defence."  
>He replied, eyes continuing to stare at the legions moving through the massive spherical portal to the ground.<p>

"Why wasn't I informed, I can help with the battle!" I yelled.

The councilman turned slowly, his smile gone, his presence sinister, evil.

"I do not have to inform you every time I want to fight a battle." He said, bolstering his presence by puffing out his chest, "And as for you fighting in a battle, that is out of the question, you barely make it by a day without having a panic attack, why would I send you out to fight?"

I gritted my teeth, he was right, while I had improved, I was still far from recovering from my ordeal with the Kings Death.

"Then I suppose the wedding will be put on hold until the worst of the fighting is over then." I said, feeling myself calming down.

"No, THAT will go ahead as scheduled, it will a major boost to morale." Replied the sinister man.

When I didn't reply, the man walked away, I wasn't even sure what his name was, but I hated him. Yet at the same time I was very thankful to him, he had given me an opportunity to start over with things, maybe even start a family. I crossed my arms and continued to stare at the legions marching by, I knew what they were in for, but as for me, I had a wedding to prepare for.

Doom drudged along the, now empty, corridors, the stronghold of _Valhallius_ oddly quiet, and with an eerie quality to it. A chill seemed to grip the air, the shadows almost moved where the sun didn't shine. Doom gripped the hilt of his sword, he could feel something, something bad, and then his worst fears were confirmed.

Without warning blades attached to red chains flew from the shadows, and the places of darkness. Doom was able to block two of them, but the ones coming from behind him dug into his back, he felt his energy drop sharply. More blades came at him from the front, he was able to block them, but the ones from behind again dug into his back.

"My, my, you're a rather tough individual now aren't you?" A familiar voice echoed through the chamber.

"Councilman Oedipus, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Doom said, the pain in his back almost nothing compared to wounds he'd suffered in the past.

"The King's Death told me about your arm." Oedipus said, calmly walking around Doom to face him, "And I decided that I wanted it."

"Oh really?" Doom said, attempting to cut the man in half.

As he began to move, the chains drew taut, and instead of being pulled free, the blades anchored themselves into his flesh. He strained against the force of the magical chains, but to no avail. Doom relaxed, and lowered his sword, facing the man, and duelling with his eyes.

"It would seem you've done your homework." Doom said, "Though I didn't think you were a member of the King's Death."

"I'm not." Oedipus replied, "I'm most certainly working with them, but I would never join such a clan."

"So then you don't want the arm for them, but you wish to possess it yourself?"

"Exactly so."

Doom started to laugh, then began to activate his right arm, raising it above his head, sword in hand.

"You're a fool to think you can handle the power of even a lesser god." Doom said, as he swung around to cut the chains.

His sword connected with the enchanted metal and clanged loudly, sparks flying, but they didn't break. Stunned disbelief washed over Doom, _what the hell? He thought, I'm stronger than them!_ He tried again to snap the chains, then a thick bracelet made of the same metal flew onto his outstretched right arm, pulling it down.

Oedipus walked toward Doom, smiling an evil grin, struggling against the force of the chains, Doom dropped to his knees. Another bracelet came out of a shadow on the floor and grabbed his other wrist, pulling both arms down. More chains shot from the shadows, forcibly immobilizing Doom, then pulling him up and stretching out his arms. He tried vainly to resist, but had no luck. Oedipus stood just over a metre in front of him, and yet he could do nothing.

"You're a tenacious fellow aren't you?" Oedipus said, almost laughing, "But I suppose that comes with several centuries, doesn't it?"

"Bite me." Doom replied, spitting on the man.

"Oh, don't be like that now, you're going to help Valhallius safeguard it's victory, one way or another."

Oedipus pulled a vicious looking curved red blade, with a wave of his hand the chains pulled Doom's right arm out straight.

"If you think you can just cut my arm off, then you're sorely mistaken!" Doom managed as the chains threatened to pull him apart.

"Normally I'd agree with you…" Oedipus responded, "But this is no ordinary blade."

Oedipus raised the blade, and with a swift motion, brought it down upon Doom's right arm, severing it completely.

The armies of Valhallius had marched to what was expected to be the final confrontation with the King's Death. They had routed most of them already, they just needed to strike a killing blow. That same day however, was my wedding day, while the legions of Valhallius fought, the Royal Guard stood ready, and the music played.

The fact that I was getting married at all, let alone to a princess, was still a source of contention in my mind. What had I ever done to deserve it? Regardless the decision was made, and as far as anyone was concerned I was the last survivor of the Kandarin royal family. I was dressed by the servants of the palace in a white robe trimmed with gold, and a sword of Rune. What the princess would be dressed in was a mystery to me, but I knew she would wear it beautifully, her elegance did not have limits.

I shook my head, _what the hell am I doing here?_ I thought to myself, wiping the sweat from my forehead with my hand.

"My lord, are you alright?" The servant next to me looked worried, he was dressed in the robes of a Kandarin Knight, but he was in fact a Valhallan Marine.

"Yes, yes I'm fine, I'm just a tad nervous is all." I responded to him, quietly so no one else could hear.

"Lord Krigeren, need I remind you to use proper diction?" The man replied, giving me a stern look.

I had decided to take a new name after everything that had happened with the King's Death, my chosen name was 'Sterk Krigeren'. A combination of the ancient Fremenikk word for 'strong' and 'warrior', it seemed a fitting title for an aristocrat. I liked the first name, I had chosen it completely of my own accord, however the last name was chosen for me, I had simply not objected to it. The sun was high in the sky, and the temperature was almost unbearable, even in white robes. I didn't know how long I'd be able to stand, in this temperature.

I was standing on a palace terrace, overlooking the citadel of Valhallius, the view was magnificent. I had come here many times during my therapy. I was happy it had been picked for the wedding, it made the affair a little more tolerable.

The door connecting the terrace to the palace then flew open, and the musicians began playing. Walking forward, in an elegant white dress, was Sia Diasuke, the princess of Valhallius. As a man who had never been in the presence of true royalty (at least not peacefully anyway), the sight made my breath catch in my throat. I gulped down hard, I had also never been married before, and though events were most certainly beyond my control at this point, I still saw it as a happy occasion. As she walked forward, the minute details of the dress became more visible, and I felt my pulse jump.

The dress showed her shoulders, and was trimmed in a light blue fabric, making it seem like cool ice, the fabric shimmered in the sunlight. Her veil sparkled blue, and she carried a bouquet of ice blue flowers, perhaps native to the regions of Valhallius. When I was a child I read many novels, and some of my favourites were stories about hopeless romantics, like _'The Bachelor of Crandor'_, or _'Guthixian Days'_. This however, exceeded even those, and it was real, not fictional. She walked down the aisle in a swift gliding motion, then she was right in front of me, the trim of her dress was in fact in a wave pattern.

Enthralled in her beauty, I failed to notice that Doom was absent from the rows of seats. The priest began reading the rites of bonding, a Fremenikk tradition, then removed her veil, beneath the fail, her hair had been cut short, and lined neatly along her chin. I felt my heart skip a beat, I let out a slow breath, her ice blue eyes stared at me with a look of resignation.

At some point or another we kissed, long and passionately, and to my surprise, I was not the one who initiated.

The last time Doom had been mortal, his whole world had been torn apart, and then he became immortal and things became a blur. Now however, he was mortal again, and he felt it, he could now age again, and his body felt frail, and weak. The loss of an immortal part means that the person will age from the age that they were when they became immortal.

Doom was centuries old, yet now he was essentially a twenty two year old man, deprived of that which made him famous. He had thrown into a dirty room, with no windows or light, in complete utter darkness, he'd had to come to terms with his own vulnerability. The door opened and light blinded him, his eyes shut he felt arms pulling him to his feet, and dragging him out of the cell. They threw him against the wall of the hallway, Doom's eyes were open now and he tried to fight back, attempting to ram one of the guards into the wall. The guard caught him, and lifted him off the ground, slamming him into the ground, Doom let out a gasp of air, his vision became blurry, and his head felt like it was split.

After the ceremony, Sia had thrown the flowers over the edge of the terrace, allowing them to scatter over the citadel. Then she lead me into the castle, and through to her chamber, the ceiling was high, and the smell of flowers filled the spacious room. She removed her dress, allowing it to fall to the ground, her naked body faced me, her face was slowly turning red.

Doom could see red, dripping onto the floor, his blood most likely, his remaining arm was chained up so he couldn't use it. The room was spinning, and he could feel the concussion, the pain he felt was almost unbearable. The man who had been torturing him grabbed his face and slapped him, when he failed to become alert, he loosened the chain and plunged Doom's head into a bucket of ice water.

Sia walked toward me, her arms at her sides awkwardly, she didn't look like she wanted to do this. I put up a hand, she recoiled at the sight, then I realized that she thought I was going to hit her. Shocked I lowered my hand, and stepped backward.

"I won't hurt you." I told her.

"Just be gentle..." She said, trying and failing to make eye contact.

"I won't do that either, it's obvious that this is making you uncomfortable."

A look of relief seemed to pass over her face.

"Please put on a robe." I asked her.

"I..." She began.

"If you don't put on a robe, I'll give you mine." I said, beginning to remove mine.

She didn't answer, so I finished removing my robe, and gave it to her, I was wearing pants after all, she wasn't.

"You're a bit more of a gentleman than I thought you were." She said, accepting the robe.

"I've had a rough go of things the last few years," I began, "and I never want to see another person hurt, physically or emotionally."

Sia seemed to reflect on this statement.

"I'll sleep on the couch."

"No, I think I'd like it if we shared a bed." She replied, this time it was my turn to turn a shade of red.

Oedipus opened the door to the torture chamber, inside Doom hung by his remaining arm, and the torturer enjoyed a sandwich. Ignoring the lumbering masked man completely, Oedipus walked right up and grabbed Doom by the neck, hoisting him to his feet. The broken man let out a gasp.

"Having trouble with the arm?" He spat out at Oedipus.

"No, but I know you have more information, particularly concerning ancient weapons that could be useful to Valhallius' cause." Oedipus said, slapping him.

"You think a little slap like that it going to hurt me?"

"No, but I suspect gouging out your eyes may produce the desired response."

The man who had been eating the sandwich, stood behind Oedipus, grinning a sadistic grin, a deep spoon at the ready.

The sun streamed in from the window, it was just about midday, Sia was nestled up against my body, sleeping soundly. It was a strange feeling, having a woman so close, wasn't the first time, that honour when to Plexus Strap, however, this was the first time it was a real woman. Pushing the thought out my mind, I started to get up, Sia stirred, she lazily rose, and yawned, she didn't look like royalty sitting there on the bed, but then she could've fooled me.

The door to the chamber opened, and a flood of servants poured into the room, Sia let out a sigh, and got out of bed, completely naked. She was whisked away by the servants into the next room, a group of male servants stood around me, presumably there to take care of my every need. The whole concept was a bit daunting, before now I'd always taken care of things by myself, but of course, I wasn't an ordinary person anymore. Yesterday I had married a princess, and thus I was now a prince of Valhallius, and the mundane matters of caring for myself were beneath. Letting out a long sigh I reluctantly stood, my silk pants from the previous day still on.

"Right this way your highness, your bath is ready." One of the servants said, they were all bowed slightly.

"I can take care of all this myself." I said to them.

"If your highness wishes us to leave him, then we will." Replied the one who seemed to be in charge.

"I'll ring if I need any help." I said, they all bowed in response and left the room.

The room was designed so that there were two luxurious bathrooms, one for each person. I entered the bathing chamber, it was filled with steam from the warm bath. I removed my pants, and stepped into the bathtub, the water felt nice, I submerged myself and sat, enjoying the feeling.

Then I was in Falador, or more accurately the ruins of Falador.

"When I came back from the war, the resettlement efforts hadn't even started yet." A man said, it was the Saviour.

"Why have you brought me here?" I asked him.

"Because I wanted to talk to you." He responded.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Your wife."

"I didn't marry her by choice." I said defensively.

"She's been beaten by her family, trained to be submissive." He replied.

He was wearing beaten armour made of white steel, his face was unshaven, and he wasn't wearing an eye patch his eye glowed blue and white in all it's glory.

"I noticed."

"You'd better not hurt her." He said.

"I'm not going to, I'm not that low."

"That's good, she was just as much forced into this marriage as you were." The Saviour looked relieved.

The image of Falador's ruins didn't dissipate though.

"I deserted my post twice during the war," The Saviour began,"I was posted to Karamja on the eve of the war, and left to get my family out of Falador before the advance forces reached it." He looked sad, "I was just barely able to get them out of the city, while the attack was in progress. My wife almost died."

"I'm sorry to hear that." I replied, at a loss for what to say.

"She was seriously wounded in the attack, and only the Mages of the first tower were able to save her."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I want you to appreciate the life you've gained in Valhallius."

I woke up in the tub, and surfaced abruptly, gasping for air.

"God I hate it when he does that..." I muttered to myself.

The setting sun made no difference to the muddy fields, the bloody weapons, or the continuing battle. The King's Death was losing ground, for the first time in two centuries. The optimistic energy flowing from the whole of the army of Valhallius was intoxicating.

Sterk was starting to get used to the royal lifestyle, the lack of any responsibility really made it an enjoyable experience. Sitting for afternoon tea, in the royal garden, was positively lovely, at least that was how it was described. Sterk was restless, he didn't want to continue sitting, the idea that there was a continuing war drove him absolutely crazy.

"Honey, you look distracted." Sia said, placing her cup of tea on a saucer.

"I'm just thinking about the future." I replied.

"Are you sure you're not thinking about the past?" She asked, placing a hand sympathetically on my right leg.

I leaned in close, placing my forehead against hers, "I can't help but think about what's happening down on the ground right now..." I whispered to her.

Leaning into me she replied, "it doesn't matter what's happening down there right now..."

I kissed her, trying to make it look romantic, "it does to me..."

"Perhaps you would like to move to your chambers." One of the servants said.

"I think I would like that." I replied, standing, hand in hand with Sia.

In the room we separated, Sia walked to an elaborately designed chair and sat down. She looked slightly embarrassed, her white afternoon dress extenuating her delicate physique. With legs crossed she gestured for me to sit down in the chair next to her.

I looked at her, "we're married now you know."

"I am perfectly aware of that fact." She replied, her eyes closed.

I looked at her, "your long hair looked really nice, why'd you cut it?"

"Wasn't my choice, they cut it for me the day of the wedding." She replied, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

At that moment a servant burst into the room, panting heavily, but trying to regain his composure. Sia glared at him, he looked nervous, and not a little mournful. Sia gesture for him to speak.

He composed himself then spoke, "your highnesses, I bring sad news, Emperor Bjork Diasuke has passed."

Sia's face went from anger to unfiltered grief, the servant closed his eyes.

"Leave!" I ordered him, frightened by the sudden snap he hastily left the room.

"They say a blind man can see the truth."

"A blind man can't see anything." The torturer responded.

"You know, I blinded myself once, but of course I was immortal, and my eyes regenerated." Doom said, trying to carry on the conversation.

"This time, you're blind permanently."

"Yes I suppose it is looking that way."

The door to the chamber opened, with a loud bang, a warm liquid seemed to cover Doom.

"Devaris, look at what you've allowed them to do to you." A voice said.

The chains immobilizing Doom were suddenly released.

"Who are you?" Doom cautiously asked.

"You don't even know the voice of your own brother, has it really been that long?" The voice came again.

"My brother died two millennia ago, you couldn't possibly be him." Doom replied, feeling himself being hoisted to his feet.

"I suppose you would assume that, but allow me to give you your sight back."

Suddenly Doom's vision returned, in perfect vivid colour, he could see the world again. Turning to the man who had saved his life, he realized in an instant, that what the man said was true. The person before Doom, was indeed his brother, Delrin Hex.


End file.
